Chron: Notebook - Playoff spot would mean Rockets pass test

Feb. 8, 2004, 12:04AM

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2392880

NOTEBOOK
Playoff spot would mean Rockets pass test
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
What was said doesn't matter as silly and unnecessary, and perhaps even a bit entertaining, as it was.

Does anyone really care if Steve Francis and Jeff Van Gundy shared a bowl or two of Cheerios? "Pass the milk, Steve. Steve? The milk? Steve?"

The tension between them might be real, but it's also irrelevant. Van Gundy's coaching style does not demand that he can be anyone's buddy. And Francis can be occasionally irresponsible, but he's not rebellious.

Rockets players gritted their teeth and rolled their eyes for a few days after Francis missed or skipped the team's flight to Phoenix. But they have pretty much blown off the whole incident and its fallout. They seemed to find all the attention and debate it generated kind of stupid.

But there is a message that might not be lost.

This is the Rockets' pass/fail season. Make the playoffs, and they pass. Fall short again, and they fail.

Barring season-changing injuries, there will be no shades of gray, no subtext or explanations, no nuance.

So Van Gundy sent the message. You miss the flight. He will say you missed the flight. You tell him he wanted to go to the Super Bowl. He will say you wanted to go to the Super Bowl.

Francis felt as if he was called out, and perhaps he was. But that was not the intention, really. It's a simple season. The Rockets blew off a handful of games, showing so little interest in their performance that Van Gundy said that they lost their heart.

Same thing. They played without heart. So he said they played without heart. If anything, he has bitten his tongue far more than he has barked.

No shades of gray, no subtext or explanations, no nuance.

"Not just particularly with him," Van Gundy said before the Rockets stopped the bleeding with a pair of have-to wins. "But if you look at our team and how we played, anyone would have the right to question how committed is the team, players and coaches to getting a different result. Anyone would have a right, watching (those) four games to question that.

"If as a coach and if as a player if you have any level of pride, the way we played (those) four games is unacceptable, and you'll see a change. If not, you have every right to continue to question. It's not been right. It's not been fair to our fans. It's not been fair to our organization.

"Hey, you can lose. When you don't compete to your highest level, it's not acceptable. I don't care at all if some players take offense that I said we did not compete. I'd rather they be offended by how we performed than how I said we performed."

There no doubt have been other incidents that Van Gundy did not have to make public. Francis also missed the team's corporate dinner, meaningless to fans but enormously important to the organization, to watch NFL playoff games.

But the message sent last week when Van Gundy was unwilling to cover for his best player was that this team and this season will be judged solely by the facts.

The Rockets kept most of their nucleus together through four lottery seasons. Some of those failures were explained away by the necessary growing pains. A season was lost to injury and illness. A pair of seasons produced the two best records a team has had and not made the playoffs.

But this is the pass/fail season. It will be judged by results. If the Rockets forgot that, they were given a clear reminder last week.


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Around the west
Shaq sounds off
-- The Rockets had their little drama, and it was an interesting distraction for a few days. But a moment of perspective: The Lakers go through this every week.
OK, so they also go through a championship celebration fairly regularly, too.

But imagine if we all read into the true meaning of all the gibberish that comes out of their mouths. (Oh, yeah, we do.) The Lakers offered several little dramas last week: Shaquille O'Neal's television curse-athon; Kobe Bryant's sliced finger, and Bryant's failure to show up for the game (while on the injured list) in Philadelphia as expected.

We'll just go with the O'Neal reaction to his suspension for his profanity tantrum and wherever else he goes to see how the Steve Francis-Jeff Van Gundy breakfast club measures up. Somehow, he went from complaining about the officials, to saying there's a conspiracy against him to demanding the ball more.

"I said what I felt, and people try to control people," O'Neal said. "But you can never control me. I'm a 31-year-old juvenile delinquent. Nobody can control me. I regret not being there for the team, but it wasn't my decision. Things you can't control, you should never worry about. If we don't win, it doesn't matter how many Hall of Famers we got on this team, I'm going to get the blame first, Phil (Jackson) is going to get the blame second.

"So, of course I feel responsible. But if they're going to make me responsible, I would like to touch the ball. Let me either shoot it or let me pass it. I'm not comfortable with touching the ball, then running up and down the court five, 10 minutes, doing regular big-man stuff."

Nuggets players unhappy about All-Star snub

Now that they are such a power, and have been for at least a half-season, the Nuggets are incensed to have been shut out of the All-Star Game.

"They are supposed to pick at least one (Nuggets player)," forward Carmelo Anthony said.

They are? Is that a rule? Actually, it's not.

"At least one player from the Nuggets should have made it," guard Andre Miller said. "We're eight games over .500. Guys are working hard, and you don't reward one player from this team? You reward guys that are doing OK but haven't played half the season?"

OK, the half-season crack was pretty good. Ray Allen had played in 21 games when he got the nod. Andrei Kirilenko's Jazz have fallen below .500 and are 0-2 against Denver. So maybe the Nuggets have a point.

"We have a better record than both teams," Miller said. "Ray Allen is very talented and good, but he has played half the season."

Allen shot back: "Just because Denver has a winning record, that doesn't determine an All-Star player. Coaches in this league seem to know what they are talking about. They voted in who they think should be on this team."



What about Zach?
-- Blazers forward Zach Randolph might have the best case for saying he was unfairly overlooked for the All-Star team by West coaches. Randolph, one of just five players in the NBA to average 20 points and 10 rebounds, is among the league's top 10 in scoring (21.5), rebounding (11), offensive rebounds (3.5), double doubles (26) and efficiency rating (ninth).
"People are talking about Carmelo (Anthony) and LeBron (James) being snubbed," Randolph said, "but I think I got the worst of it all."


Defense the difference
-- That brings us to Andrei Kirilenko. He is way more inconsistent offensively than the other All-Stars, or Zach Randolph, Carmelo Anthony and Elton Brand. But he's more disruptive defensively, which apparently won over the coaches.
"I know why they choose me. I'm a team player," Kirilenko said. "I like to block shots, steal the ball, play defense to help the team win.

"I don't think I'm going to play a lot. There's a lot of big stars there. I'm a little star. I'm trying to keep my emotion level down, but I'm happy. I can't believe it. I still can't believe it until they announce it."

Kirilenko has played in the Russian League All-Star Game, the European League All-Star Game, and the NBA's rookie game as a rookie and a sophomore.

"This is big deal," he said. "It's very prestigious for my country. Many people in Russia will say they are proud of me."


Not too smart
-- Quick tip: If you are a mediocre player, barely getting minutes on a lottery team, don't lose and then talk trash. Don't call out Tim Duncan. And don't do it when you have to play the Spurs again in two days.
This bit of wisdom somehow escaped Jazz guard DeShawn Stevenson after the Spurs barely slipped past the Jazz 85-81.

"With San Antonio, if you get up and play them, make them take tough shots, then they tend to whine," Stevenson said. "Watching the game, Tim Duncan was whining when Mike (Ruffin) got up into him."

In between whines, Duncan had 33 points and 14 rebounds. Spurs coaches displayed Stevenson's critiques in the locker room. In the next game, Duncan scored 30 of his 31 in three quarters and added 11 rebounds, five blocks, three steals and three assists in his 16th consecutive victory over the Jazz. The Spurs won by 18.

Asked to explain how such a whiner could dominate the great DeShawn Stevenson and the Jazz, Duncan deadpanned: "Just luck. Just luck."


Daniels steps up
-- Since Seattle's Brent Barry went out with a broken finger, Antonio Daniels has been playing the best basketball of his seven-year career.
A talented, but erratic burst of energy off the Spurs' bench for several seasons, Daniels has grown into a reliable point guard with the Sonics. He had a career-high 30 points with 11 assists against Sacramento. And in a rematch with the Kings last Tuesday, Daniels had 13 points and a career-high 14 assists. In his past seven games, Daniels has made 40 of 69 shots, including nine of 20 from 3-point range. For the season,he is averaging 8.6 points and four assists. Most of the season he was getting sporadic minutes.

Also his shooting has been sensational -- 50.6 percent overall, 40.6 percent on 3s and 82.7 percent from the line. He leads the NBA by a wide margin in assists-to-turnover ratio (4.94).


A shining Sun
-- Thankfully, the Suns did not complain that Joe Johnson was snubbed for the All-Star team. But Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said: "Right now, nobody (in the NBA) is playing better than Joe Johnson. No player at no position."
Since the Suns dealt Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway, making Johnson the featured shooter in the backcourt, he has averaged 22.6 points, 5,4 rebounds and 5.3 assists. He has scored 20-plus points in seven straight games and in 12 of 13. ... The Clippers probably would release Keyon Dooling if they did not think they could use him in a package deal to clear more cap room for a summer run at Kobe Bryant. There has been talk of Dooling and Melvin Ely, a solid player the Clippers did not need when they took him, going to Chicago for some combination of Marcus Fizer or Jamal Crawford and filler.


Around the east
Rivalry heats up
-- The Knicks-Pacers rivalry has new life. Mix in a good playoff series, and maybe a Reggie Miller-Spike Lee exchange for old-times' sake, and the East could have something to rival the Kings-Lakers.
There will be tension in the rivalry as long as Isiah Thomas remains bitter that Larry Bird fired him, a sentiment expected to last a day longer than forever.

After the Knicks beat the Pacers 97-90 last week, Thomas showed little emotion, just a brief fist pump, before he allowed himself a victory lap through the Pacers' locker room. Beaming, he hugged his way around the visiting team's locker room, ignoring the usual customs.

He chatted briefly with Pacers coach Rick Carlisle but made it clear he believed he should still be Indiana's coach.

"I thought he (Bird) and I had a wonderful opportunity to do something great in Indiana and do something great in basketball," Thomas said. "I don't know if two Top 50 basketball players had ever worked together. I told him the day he fired me, `I think you're missing a wonderful opportunity. I hate that you didn't give us a chance. Had you given us a chance, I think you would have enjoyed working with me.' "

Pacers president Donnie Walsh, however, said he and Bird gave Thomas the summer to fix a fractured team. In truth, they just thought they could do better.

"The way we ended it last year, I think our locker room fragmented," Walsh said. "I can't tell you it was in direct relation with Isiah. It's got to be put back together again. I think as we went on in the summer, it didn't appear like we could do that. You look around, you're not going to trade all the players. So if we're going to bring this back together, we're going to need a new coach."

But things looked most promising for the future of the rivalry after the Pacers took offense to the Knicks' postgame celebration.

"We just have to have a long memory," Jermaine O'Neal said. "They played very well. They celebrated like they won a championship. We'll remember that."

Knicks guard Stephon Marbury shot back: "Jermaine O'Neal hasn't won any championships. If that was Shaquille O'Neal saying that, it's one thing. But he hasn't won one championship."


Another New York franchise for Boston to hate

While he works to rebuild his rapidly sinking team, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge praised the job Isiah Thomas has done remaking the Knicks. But Ainge sounded more than a little envious, going so far as to compare the Knicks to Boston's least-favorite sports franchise.

"I think the Knicks are, in my opinion, one of the top four teams in the East on paper," Ainge said. "I think they've tremendously improved themselves for now.

"They've given up some future things to be better now, and they were able to do that by taking on Penny Hardaway's and Stephon Marbury's contracts. There's no question that that's an advantage -- to have a $90 million payroll.

"It's like the Yankees. They have a triple- or quadruple- or five-times payroll as other teams in the league, because their revenues make that possible."


I can't do it myself
-- Allen Iverson topped his famous "We talking about practice" speech with a classic rant about the 76ers' lack of heart. He apparently had similarly shouted down his teammates before ripping through 10 full minutes only briefly interrupted by short questions.
Before the Sixers beat the Lakers on Thursday, they had lost six of seven and nine of 11. Iverson warmed up after a loss at Minnesota on Feb. 1.

"That is embarrassing," he said. "To have an 18-point lead and have a team down the way we did and to let them come back in the game like that, that shows no heart. An 18-point lead, as professionals, you're supposed to be able to take care of that."

And after he carried the Sixers, scoring 36 of 80 points, in a weak loss to Toronto, he let it fly.

A sample:

"We don't play with no heart, we don't take a challenge," he said. "Guys don't take pride and compete. At some point, it should be embarrassing to you. At some point, your pride takes over and you want to get up into somebody and guard him. You want to make sure your man doesn't hurt the team.

"But we're not playing with no heart. We're not playing with no pride. Nobody out there is taking a challenge like they should, and it's sad. We've been a good team for six years. Then this year, we don't have a sense of urgency. We see that we're down in the standings, not in the playoffs right now, trying to fight uphill, and we're not taking the challenge.

"I'm waiting for everybody to (get angry). It's personal pride. It's just your pride. It's your ego as a player, as a competitor, as a person. You've always got to have pride in yourself. You always have to feel like whatever you do in life, you're going to try to do it better than anybody. You're going to try to do it to the best of your ability, and it's not being done right now. Honestly, it hurts real bad because I'm not used to this."


His mind's still on Phily
-- When the All-Star reserves were named last week, Pistons coach Larry Brown was asked what he thought of "No. 3" making the team. That would be Ben Wallace, who's on the team Brown coaches.
Brown's response, "Allen?" If it might seem that some of Brown's heart is still with Allen Iverson and the 76ers, he then called for an optional practice the next day. He skipped it to fly home to Philadelphia where he stopped by the 76ers' practice. ... Shaquille O'Neal's profane tantrum stole the attention, but Vince Carter was just as frustrated with the officiating. His best shots came the next day. "It's getting us losses," Carter said. "I'm not saying they should call every one of them, but some of the ones that are more obvious, damn, just blow the whistle. I sit in bed and dream if I can get just half of (the calls Allen Iverson gets), I'd be happy. I just have to keep going and let them continue to see that I'm drawing those fouls. Hopefully they watch the tape like we do." ... Eddie Griffin sits in a Houston jail, hoping to be allowed out to get treatment at the Betty Ford Center, but Nets officials privately say there is no chance he will play for them this season. The Rockets' decision to cut their losses when they did now seems beyond question, but the better decision was to wait as long as possible before extending his rookie contract to a fourth season, a move typically done in the summer before his problems became so apparent.



RISING AND FALLING


RISING
·Tim Duncan -- In the past four games, Duncan has averaged 32.3 points, 15.5 rebounds and three blocks, and finally has ditched that pigeon-toed free-throw stance.
·Knicks -- Now firmly in the East playoff picture at seventh. They have won seven of their past 10 games.

·Lawrence Frank -- Forget the Jeff Van Gundy comparisons. This guy -- 6-0 lifetime as a head coach -- must be Red Auerbach and then some.

·Rookie All-Star Game -- Not only will Yao Ming play for the sophomores, the rookie-sophomore game will be the only chance to see Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.


FALLING
·Sonics -- They lost five of six heading into a stretch of 10 consecutive games against teams with losing records. They began that stretch with a two-point win in Phoenix, but if they don't turn it around, the fire sale is on.
·Celtics -- Jim O'Brien got out just in time. With the losingstreak at six games, the team is on the brink of lottery status.

·Warriors -- They have lost 14 of last 15 road games. They would fit in with the East's worst.

·Rookie stars -- Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James could make a good case they deserved All-Star spots, but so did a lot of players. To say they would refuse to accept positions if selected as injury replacements was childish, even though James reversed his stand.


By the numbers
·169 -- Number of coaching changes in the NBA since Jerry Sloan became Jazz coach in 1988.

·69 -- Consecutive free throws made by Sam Cassell. That is 28 from the NBA record held by former Timberwolve Michael Williams.

·4 -- How many times in the past five seasons that Vince Carter has led the NBA in votes for the All-Star Game.

·22 -- Consecutive months Dallas has had a winning record, the NBA's longest active streak.


Quotable
·Heat forward Lamar Odom on failing to make the All-Star team: "You have to prove yourself, and sometimes it takes more than one year to do so. But it was great just having my name mentioned with some of the best players in the league. I guess I made honorable-mention All-Star."

·Mavericks coach Don Nelson on center/forward addition Scott Williams: "He speaks as an adult. He knows the game, and he knows his game. If you ask him what he does well and what his limitations are, he'll tell you. That's unlike most guys in this league who don't think they have any (limitations)."

·Lakers coach Phil Jackson, blaming the NBA for Shaquille O'Neal's suspension: "The league is known for its vindictiveness. Yet, we didn't anticipate they should prevent the team from having these fans see him. If they fine him some money, I think that's appropriate. I think he deserves that. There's no precedent in this. We've got guys running around throwing the bird to the fans, flipping off people, doing all kinds of things, which is probably a much more obnoxious gesture than a comment on TV."

·Nets coach Lawrence Frank on looking nothing like an NBA coach: "Most people have no clue who I am. A lot of times security (at Continental Airlines Arena), they still stop me. I was shocked they let me through (Wednesday). It was a different guard. We won in Orlando, and I'm in the hotel (elevator) by myself after the game. And it stops on a floor and a guy walks in, and I must've had something that had `Nets' on. And he said, `Were you at the game tonight?' He goes, `Who won?' I said, `The Nets.' And he said, `The Nets won?' "

·Bulls forward Scottie Pippen on choosing not to announce his retirement plans: "I've had a lot of cheers in this game. I don't need any more. I don't need any (retirement) gifts. The little moments are enough. Those fans are saying goodbye to me. And I'm saying goodbye to them."

 

sorry Clutch

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