[FOXSPORTS] Rockets still missing a thing or two

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http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6181012

Rockets still missing a thing or two
Charley Rosen / FOXSports.com

Houston's 101-100 victory over Chicago on Thursday demonstrated what is rapidly becoming a dangerous pattern for Houston: Crisp offense and pesky defense, building up a seemingly insurmountable lead, only to be succeeded by sloppy offense and listless defense that turns the game into a crap-shoot.

Simply put, the Rockets played championship-caliber basketball for most of the ball game. Tracy McGrady was driving and thriving, either dunking or slipping assists to his teammates. Luther Head was dropping treys. Rafer Alston was keeping the ball moving and avoiding wild shots. Juwan Howard was climbing the offensive boards, as was Scott Padgett. And led by Shane Battier's constant hustle, the Rockets' league-leading defense was effectively packing the middle.

It's true, however, that Yao Ming was having difficulty countering Ben Wallace's quick-handed defense: Twice Yao failed to meet entry passes that led to steals by Big Ben. Yao also had two shots blocked, shot an air-ball, and tossed a turn-around jumper that bounced off the side of the backboard. Even so, the Rockets had a second-quarter for the ages, outscoring the Bulls by 30-13. By the mid-way point of the third-quarter, Houston's margin had grown to 21. Surely, the Rockets looked to be good enough to challenge the Spurs, Mavs, and Suns to be the best in the West.

But then, in the last 16 minutes of the contest, all of the Rockets' flaws became manifest and the game was suddenly up for grabs.

Here's what went wrong, and why:

T-Mac began burying his jumpers (6-11 from mid-range and beyond) and stopped looking to penetrate and pass. Of his seven assists, five came in the first half. McGrady's lazy screen/roll defense likewise became more noticeable. (Instead of moving his feet to the far side of the screen, T-Mac either got nailed or merely made a half-hearted stab with his arm.)

The Rockets showed a penchant for being lifted by head fakes — especially McGrady, Head, Alston, and even Yao was guilty of jumping into what Bill Fitch used to call "the pop-corn machine." Head tried to take his faulty-handle into the middle too many times. (Does he always turn the ball over when he tries to pass while he's on the move?) Dikembe Mutombo's hands turned to rubber — he committed three turnovers in seven minutes. Kirk Snyder committed a foolish and costly foul. Battier was the only home-town player who consistently battled his way through screens. The Rockets neglected to make the extra defensive rotations that would pressure Chicago's perimeter shooters, who suddenly began to find the range. And Ben Gordon was absolutely unguardable.

Laziness, stupidity, guys trying to force their will on the game, a team-wide absence of a killer instinct — these all hurt the Rockets.

So, what about Houston's vaunted defense that yields only 88 ppg?

In truth, it's a phony statistic, if only because Jeff Van Gundy's game plan is to take the air out of the ball and force-feed Yao in the pivot.

And therein lies still another problem.

T-Mac has claimed that, at age 27, he's already lost a step; that he's planning to retire when he's 30; that he isn't comfortable shouldering the responsibility of being his team's go-to scorer. All of which leads to the secret flaw in T-Mac's game — he doesn't really LOVE to play basketball.

That's exactly why Van Gundy — who sports the same droopy bags under his eyes, along with a new-look clean-bean, and a series of neck-stretching twitches that seem to be modeled after Flip Saunders — still hasn't been able to integrate the special talents of his two super-stars.

Yao may be 7-5 and 300-plus pounds, yet he's essentially a finesse player. And despite T-Mac's reticence, the Rockets won't fly far into the playoffs unless, and until he becomes the team's prime-time scorer and Yao is relegated to secondary status. Whenever Yao is stationed in the low post, Houston's offense stagnates and McGrady becomes an afterthought. But when T-Mac is dominating the ball, Yao gets enough easy hand-outs and cookies to mask his deficiencies.

In other words, Van Gundy's offense is bass-ackwards.

In addition, with Houston up only two in the waning seconds of the game and poised for a critical side-in-bounds, VG appointed 6-2 Rafer Alston to put the ball in play. The coaches' manual clearly states that diminutive point guards NEVER should be put in such a vulnerable position because it's too easy for taller defenders to limit their vision of the court. Wings, and even power forwards, should be the mandatory in-bounders. The Rockets were fortunate that Van Gundy's near-blunder only cost them a valuable time-out.

Houston was also fortunate that some atrocious officiating helped their cause considerably. An in-bounding walking violation went unseen, as did a foul at the buzzer while Andres Nocioni buried a 3-pointer. (Also, of the eleven high-post screens that Yao set, five were clearly — and illegally — of the moving variety.) With even a modicum of righteous officiating, the Rockets would have duplicated their early-lead-late-collapse-loss against the Spurs on Tuesday.

In sum, Houston lacks consistency, overall team speed, legitimate power in the paint, enough players who can routinely make appropriate decisions, enough players with the right balance of mind and heart, as well as a winning game plan.

Otherwise, they're a hell of a ball club.

Charley Rosen is FOXSports.com's NBA analyst and author of 13 books about hoops, the current one being "The pivotal season — How the 1971-72 L.A. Lakers changed the NBA."