Nov. 1, 2003, 11:17PM Rockets fall 79-71 in bumpy ride By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle And now time to play ... pick your favorite Rockets' turnover. "I would hate to narrow it to one play," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "But that's how we play our game." First there's the first half pass when Steve Francis was heading to the rim and instead tried a no-look, behind-the-back flip that caught the back of one of the Grizzlies' heel. The Rockets were on their way to an 11-point first half deficit then, but they came back and led by five heading into the fourth quarter. Our next contestant is Cuttino Mobley, who with three minutes left dribbled the ball off his foot and turned to the officials and begged for a call. The Rockets trailed by 10, and the first boos ever directed at the home team were heard at Toyota Center. Finally, we have Francis again, moments after grabbing an offensive rebound in the last minute. Down by four, Francis lowered his shoulder and splattered James Posey for a charge with 44 seconds left. Seconds later, the Grizzlies clinched a 79-71 comeback win Saturday against the Rockets, scoring nearly a third of their points off the Rockets' 24 turnovers. "We were flailing," Van Gundy said. "I'm sure some part was carelessness. Some part was their pressure. I thought we did not react well to their pressure. We were discombobulated a lot offensively. "I think the biggest thing I noticed, which I noticed last year, in games that were highly competitive and highly intense and highly physical, there was a lack of poise under pressure. "I just thought in a tight game, if we played bad, up five going into the fourth, they came back, made the run, we were taking bad fouls, missing open shots, missing free throws, not getting loose balls, not getting rebounds. We were playing frustrated more than composed." In short, the Rockets panicked. They panicked when the Grizzlies surrounded Yao Ming in the first half, taking away the entry passes that worked early in the game. They panicked when they could not make their shots in a 24-of-66 performance. Mostly they panicked when Bo Outlaw and Earl Watson scrambled around the court, daring them to run their offense with poise. For old times' sake, they even tried one of last season's near-impossible alley-oops, turning a two-on-one break into a try that would be considered too chancy for a dunk contest. "You mean all the lobs," Van Gundy said. "We're just ... I would say that what our lob percentage really is and what we think it is are two different things. When we keep it, just in general ... sound, solid and simple, we're going to be OK." That did not happen until 10 minutes into the fourth quarter Saturday, when the Rockets had scored all of 10 points. But Jim Jackson and Francis each hit a pair of free throws. After a Posey reverse, Francis was fouled and brought the Rockets to within 75-69. Mike Miller missed and Yao was fouled on a drive. Within 75-71, Yao missed his free throw, but Francis got the rebound. Moments later, Posey was sent crashing to the floor. With that, Earl Watson hit a jumper. Posey hit a pair of free throws to put the game away. After a horrid first half, the Rockets improved only to not as bad. But that was enough for the Rockets to build a five point lead heading into the fourth quarter. But they could have gotten away with all of that to win a low-scoring, defend like crazy game, if they defended like crazy. Instead, they let Lorenzen Wright, who averaged 11.4 points per game last season, score 10 in 72 seconds as the Grizzlies built a 70-63 lead. On one possession, they gave up offensive rebounds to Person and Watson. And while they were falling out of the game, they did not show much fight until Kelvin Cato and Wright were wrapped up in a jump ball. Trailing by seven with six minutes left, the Rockets missed their next six shots and threw the ball away and into a Mike Miller layup for a nine-point lead. When Cato clanged consecutive free throws, with 3:09 left, The Rockets started well enough. Hey made their first four shots. Yao hit his first three. The Rockets quickly led by five. Then the Grizzlies figured out which one was Yao and the Rockets crumbled. With nine inches on the Grizzlies center Stromile Swift, Yao was a certain target and nearly as automatic once he got the ball. But with the Grizzlies coming with all sorts of help, and pressuring passes to he post, the Rockets crumbled. In a 12-0 Grizzlies run, the Rockets missed seven consecutive shots, which was really brick-laying considering they mixed in five turnovers. The Rockets went along roughly that way well into the second half until the Grizzlies stumbled into the same funk. Memphis even went further, running their streak of missed shots to 13. That was not enough for the still misfiring Rockets to dig out of their 11-point hole. The came within a point and trailed by three at the half. That was not much of an accomplishment. But if Van Gundy was determined to have a team capable to of winning ugly, they were halfway there. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2197069
Great article but JVG should take some heat for this one also because Hubie Brown pulled a fast one on him tonight. Looking at the stats, Rocket starters clearly killed Memphis starters and were poised to win an ugly game at home heading into the fourth quarter. The tide turned in the fourth when Memphis went into full court press and stayed with their bench players. Rocket starters were clearly too fatigued by the end of the third quarter, and some of the blame should go to the substitutions made by JVG which left many of the starters exausted in the fourth as well as lack of preparation on how to handle the full court press. Rocket starters played their butts of tonight. Defensive struggle exerts enormous amount of energy on the players. Hubie had a game plan tonight and outfoxed JVG by leaving his quicker bench players in the fourth and exploited Rockets weak bench. Hopefully JVG will go back to the drawing board and get his players prepared for other teams that might used the same approach as Memphis. For god sakes, Earl Watson killed us tonight with ball pressure defense and quick penetration in key moments in the fourth quarter.
Hubie with a great plan? He did the same thing against Boston the night before and got beat..with Paul Pierce on the bench with 6 fouls. It wasn't Van Gundy that went 3 for 16 with 4 TO's and 3 assists and collected 2 more reb's than Lo Wright...it was Moochie, Mo, and Boki collectively. Before we cannonize Hubie, I'd like to see how it goes when he has the equivalence of a Piatkowski and an AGriffin removed from his 10 man rotation.
good article. give credit when it's due... i guess. yeah it's only the second game, but hubie has turned that team around. no matter how much i hated seeing him joke around with the fans behind the grizz bench, you can't help but to like the guy. no matter how good or bad the opponents d is, i don't see the to's coming down any time soon. new coach, new players, ... new focal point on offense. sigh. 7th seed.
OmegaSupreme, I do like your another thread about blaming Yao. I mean not blaming, but Yao does need to improve his positioning. So let's what Pat can do in this department.
I'd have to partially agree with ckfol on this one......We played an 8 man rotation and were visibly exhausted in the 4th. JVG's substitutions (or there lack of) were questionable. Of course, we had horrific TO's and just couldn't put the ball in the basket, however that could be partially blamed on the exhaustion. And in the spirit of putting all the blame on one man's shoulders we should point out......Steve Francis' ball-hogging 1 on 5 down the stretch that resulted in costly TO's (and screwed me royally on my fantasy team), Mobley's continuance to jack up stupid ill-advised shots, and Boki's increasingly evident lack of a shot (gosh that boy cannot shoot to save his life!).....OK, I know that's 3 men, but hey, the more the merrier.
thx. just thought his positioning is the backbone to the ENTIRE team offense. i still and always will have faith in the team. when i show how much of an ass that i am when they lose, basically i'm showing how much i care for the team i grew up watching. i'm sure there's other bbs members that way. pick your fav rox to? hmmm... francis' last one after getting the reb off the yao freethrow miss. that's alright. 80 games left.
Kelvin Cato has be the biggest turnover thus far. This guy has clearly come out from under whatever rock he was under. No more digging in the dirt for Mr. Bench Potato, that's for sure. Was this even a Cato thread to begin with?
I'm a strong supporter of Boki and still will be. But the guy needs to practise his shots until it becomes second nature. He can hustle, board and pass but shot is sadly lacking. And I don't think it's not only a confidence thing. If he gets his rythm he can use his size to great advantage. If he doesn't well he doesn't deserve PT. Damn that Yao Ming! Someone has to tell him how to "distribute" his fouls more evenly. The first game he went all out in the 1st quarter then had to sit out. This game he was tentative on drawing offensive fouls and didn't assert his authority on a smaller opponent. He ended with only 2 PF. Sure some of these PF would result in opposition points and TO but he would of compensated this by scoring at least 25 and stop opposition scoring. Is there anyway to psyche him up?
sound, solid and simple That is exactly what our team needs from our guards. Sound, solid and simple. No more fancy behind the back passes to the foreheads of a defender. No more fancy ally ooops in traffic. Keep it sound, solid and simple.
