http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4398429.html Rockets nearly pull it out Subs almost wipe out Lakers' 27-point lead By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Kobe Bryant had already put his knees on ice and had seemed to put the game there, too. Yao Ming had been benched. Much of the largest crowd ever at a Rockets home game, 18,392, began busying itself with beating the traffic home. The Lakers had scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to take their lead to 26 (on its way to 27) when Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy had seen all he could stomach and reached to the end of his bench where he nearly found a miracle. The Rockets, with players that rarely play and never together, came all the way back to within two with less than two minutes left when their most improbable of runs finally broke down and the Lakers finished them off 102-94 on Tuesday at Toyota Center. "Coach told us to go out with a lot of energy and play hard and that's what we did," said John Lucas III after helping the Rockets to a 26-1 run back from their largest deficit this season. "We just never give up. That was our whole thing. We said that when we got out of the huddle, we would never give up no matter what the score was. "We wanted to win that game." Until then, the Rockets had been blown off the home court where they had won eight of their nine games this season, including six straight. The Lakers had sliced through a defense that had been the league's stingiest as if it weren't there, scoring more points on layups, 14, than the Rockets scored in the quarter. "We didn't respond well when the Lakers made their run coming out in the third quarter," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "We didn't respond the way good teams respond and that's toughening up on defense. There's going to be nights like tonight when the ball is not going down for us and we're going to have to step up our energy and concentration on the defensive end." Said Van Gundy, "They sliced us up good." Bryant and Vladimir Radmanovic hit 3s to start the fourth quarter. Yao had a shot blocked, missed another and turned the ball over. And with the lead at 26, Van Gundy sent Lucas, Luther Head, Chuck Hayes, Scott Padgett and Steve Novak out, apparently to play out the presumably meaningless last minutes. Asked why he went with the group he did, Van Gundy said, "The play of the other guys." "The fourth-quarter skirmish certainly doesn't overshadow the disappointing play of our core players. Not publishable is how you would describe it." Lakers coach Phil Jackson cleared his bench 3 1/2 minutes later. But the Rockets suddenly made a move. The Lakers missed all nine of their shots after clearing the bench. After getting Bryant, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown back in the game with four minutes left, they missed the next four, three by Bryant. "It was the weirdest game I've ever been a part of," Bryant said. "That's the first time I've put the ice on and had to come back out and play. It's almost like Red Auerbach smoking the cigar." The Rockets, however, after managing the hard part, fell two minutes short when they clanged through the finish at the foul line. In the last two minutes, the Rockets made just two of six free throws. With a 26-4 run after the mass substitution bringing the Rockets nearly all the way back, Padgett missed two free throws, Novak missed a 3 and Lucas missed a 3, so that when Smush Parker sank a floater in the lane with 26.5 seconds left, Bryant could finally seal the win from the line. Until those last two minutes, however, the Rockets were chasing the largest comeback in franchise history. The largest deficit the Rockets have ever overcome was from a 23-point hole. But that was in the second quarter against the Trail Blazers in 1977. The largest fourth-quarter comeback ever for the Rockets was against Phoenix in 1986, and that was from 16 down. But long after they seemed finished, the Rockets could not finish their run at the record book, and the Lakers were safe. "There was definitely a chance," Head said. "We played and got back in there." Instead, however, the Rockets were headed for the longest road trip of the season after getting blown out, and losing close on the same night. "I'm not sure I would want to characterize it beyond we were dominated in the middle two quarters," Van Gundy said. "They had their way with us. The disappointment is palpable. It really is. You can play bad. I'm not sure you have to let go of the rope the way we did. "Having the guys at the end of the bench pick it up did not change that." UPDATE ON MCGRADY The Rockets said there is no change in Tracy McGrady's status, calling him ``day-to-day.'' McGrady, who injured his back on Saturday, said he would join the team for its flight to San Francisco for the start of a five-game trip on Thursday at Golden State. BEST ROCKETS HOME CROWDS 18,392: Lakers, Dec. 12, 2006 18,332: N. Jersey, Jan. 31, 2004 18,292: Miami, March 22, 2005 19,291: Lakers, Feb. 8, 2006 18,290: San Antonio, Jan. 15, 2005
Let's get 5. Oh, by the way when you have the game won in LA score on them even if you are ahead like the Lakers did tonight. That last score was uncalled for, pay back come this weekend for LA.
i felt sorry for the 8000 patrons who already left the building in the 4th, they missed 1 heck of a show!
Im glad TMac is gonna be on the road trip. That means he might play. We need him against GS....they are gonna be fired up since we wrecked them like a week ago.
Tomnight proved were nothing without tracy. he is thew real leader of this team. 9-31 without Mcgrady. enough said.
tonight reminded me TOO much of last year when mcgrady was out. that's depressing. I think this team can be fantastic but i'm a little deflated by t-mac's injury and the prospect of him being out longer. granted it was only one game so i'm not yet sure how good we can be without him, but it certainly didn't look pretty. yao can dominate single or double coverage all night but he can't do it by himself, not with the rules the way they are. 5 or 6 years ago we could get away with dumping it into yao over and over and there wouldn't be anything the defense could do about it. now without someone like tracy to take away some of the pressure, all the defense has to do is double him without the ball, and i'm not sure if we have the personel to make them pay. if the 3 point shot is falling we can win, but that's a gamble night in and night out. with tracy there it makes things ridiculously easier on both offense and defense. if tracy's going to be out, van gundy has to find a way to adjust the offense, it just seems the players we have our only good with t-mac. i hope him making the road trip is a sign of good things to come.
So when they say biggest crowd ever, does that mean TC has never sold out? Or does that mean tickets sold out but most of them actually showed up (ie. got their tickets scanned at the front door)?
Exactly. Without Mac, this team has no direction. it's not really yao's fault either. he has 3 lakers hacking him on every play. 3rd offensive option is a must.
Basically the game was sold out, but there were more tickets scanned in at the toyota center than b4. Other sellouts all the tickets are purchased, but less are used.
Once Van Gundy gave up, and stop coaching/getting on player's nerve, the team is going to be much better on offense.
It was funny that our team was scoring when there was no coaching involved. And then when the coaching resumed...we lost it, hahaha. I keed, I keed. I very much like the mood in this thread than the other 100 threads crying about anything after one loss. Bench this person, trade this person...nevermind that they made big plays for us to win other games. Sickens me how cry-babish some of the posters on this forum are. Thank goodness there are some good threads to be found amongst the rubbish. I watched an entertaining game. And yes, Tmac come back soon!
