Out-of-sync Rockets take tumble Starters struggle in 79-69 loss to rival Spurs By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2870617 LAREDO - Tracy McGrady just didn't feel right. He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't right. Maybe it was playing with a new team, in a new offense with new teammates. Maybe it was that he never is at his best in the preseason. But a player to whom scoring had always been so easy, so natural could not score. Yao Ming felt worse, but he knew just what was wrong. He had gotten caught in an arm lock with Rasho Nesterovic, heard it crunch and hyperextended. He came back to play 25 more minutes, but will have an MRI today and said Wednesday, "I'm scared." With just one more preseason game to fix their problems, and the start of the regular season looming in less than a week, the Rockets more than lost, 79-69, to the Spurs before a Laredo Entertainment Center record sellout of 9,137 on Wednesday. They had one star struggling another hurting and an offense that belonged in another town's arena if only because the Rockets did not want to do too much damage to their own. "Our starting group got hammered," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "They scored 22 points to start the first and the second half. We have to share the ball more. Yao getting seven shots, it's not going to work that way. We have to search him out more. "It doesn't have to be (so ragged.) If we continue to play like that, I guess it will be. It's not like that on the practice floor. The lights aren't on, the stats are not kept, people are not evaluating us. We've just got to gain more and more discipline in our game, individually and collective, play more as a team on both ends." The Rockets made just 29 of 80 shots and 4 of 9 3-pointers, but in many ways, their offense was worse than even that. By the time Spurs coach Gregg Popovich cleared his bench, the Spurs led by 12 and the Rockets had made just 22 of 67 shots. After sitting out the game in Orlando, McGrady got plenty of time to find his touch and did have a few moments that could have triggered something. He nailed a 3 to give the Rockets a halftime lead and threw down a vicious alley-oop. But his struggles did not seem as much with his shooting eye as with finding his place in the Rockets offense. He made just 6 of 23 shots, taking many to beat the shot clock. "I'm kind of out of sync right now," McGrady said. "It showed tonight, it really showed tonight. It comes with the territory when you change teams and teammates, when you have to get a different offense down pat, instead of thinking, we have to be playing and just knowing our spots and just playing ball. Right now, we're doing too much thinking." With that, he offered a hint at good news. "My preseason is always like this," he said. "I'm never off to a good start. I'm never rolling. But when the season starts, I'm clicking. I don't know what it is about preseason, but I'm never good." Yao's night could have been much worse. Though he was escorted by team doctors to the lockerroom and returned to the court still holding his left elbow, he showed no signs of the injury once he was back on the court. He had a solid night, making 5 of 7 shots with 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. But he seemed to be struggling to find his place in the Rockets offense. "We've basically taken two teams and thrown them together," Yao said. "It will take time to get chemistry and rhythm together. If you look at the Spurs, they've had that chemistry. We just took apart our team and put another together. That's something that has to develop." The Rockets improved enough defensively to at least get in the way. In his 31 minutes, Tim Duncan had 15 points. Manu Ginobili struggles, making just 2 of 9 shots. But even with the Spurs far from their best, their starters whipped the Rockets starters, leaving the Rockets with a sense that time to "develop" was running out. "We have to play a lot harder," Van Gundy said. "Playing hard and playing unselfishly on both ends can overcome a lot of stuff." jonathan.feigen@chron.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rockets Summary Spurs sign Wilks For the second consecutive year, with both teams searching for a backup point guard, the Spurs beat the Rockets to a player both teams wanted by signing former Rockets and Rice guard Mike Wilks on Wednesday. The Rockets had sent Wilks to Chicago to help complete the deal to acquire Dikembe Mutombo. But with the strong preseason showing of second-round pick Chris Duhon, the Bulls released Wilks last week, beginning the Rockets' efforts to bring Wilks back. Last season, both the Spurs and the Rockets went after point guard Charlie Ward after the Knicks bought out the remainder of Ward's contract. Ward chose to sign with the Spurs, but he played sparingly and then signed with the Rockets as a free agent. "We tried to get him," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said of Wilks. "We thought he would be an interesting addition. It didn't work out. ... I really enjoyed our year with him, hated that he had to go in the trade to Chicago and tried to talk him back because we really like him a lot." With rookie Beno Udrih out, the Spurs are using Brent Barry as a backup to starting point guard Tony Parker. Host with the most The Rockets always are looking for non-NBA cities seeking to host a preseason game but rarely have they come across one as determined as Laredo in the three years since the opening of the Laredo Entertainment Center. The Spurs keep four preseason games in their season-ticket package, which makes it impossible for them to move a home game, but with the Spurs as an opponent, the Rockets had no problem selling out Wednesday night's game. "There's a good basketball following down here for both teams," Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said. "Every year you get a lot of calls for preseason games, but this was one that was really persistent." Over the last few years, the Rockets have played preseason games in Beaumont; Austin; El Paso, Albuquerque, N.M.; Little Rock, Ark.; Birmingham, Ala.; Fayetteville, N.C., and Memphis, Tenn. (before the Grizzlies relocated there from Vancouver). -- JONATHAN FEIGEN
"Right now, we're doing too much thinking."-TMac Didn't Steve say something similar to do this last season? Not like it matters, but I hope TMac doesn't go through the same thing Steve did last season. I know its only preseason, but I remember from last season that JVG needs to loosen the reigns a little. Yao and TMac are very smart basketball players, they know how the game works. I don't think they need any offensive help from JVG. These guys know how to play the game and I think JVG needs to let them do it.
This article shows what is really happening with the team. All these "doom-and-gloom" posters just look at the outer surface of things. You can't expect a whole new roster just to come together over night. This was the first game that they were playing in the proper rotations and it really looked as if everyone was thinking way too much. They had alot of open looks against the best defensive team in the league which is encouraging to me. The shots just weren't falling. Yao's low output in scoring was more about him missing just about all of the first half, rather than anythingelse IMO. A) Players have to get in a rhythm and, leaving the game for that extent of time at the beginning, can really throw off such rhytm. B) Again, teammates are trying to get used to playing together, trying to learn where and when a player likes to get the ball and discovering where other players are most comfortable on the court. I think this also contributes somewhat to Yao's lack of touches. I think the players are willing and want to throw it down there, they just haven't learned when and where Yao likes it. I think, when they do get it to him, it is way too late in the shot clock. Turnovers were a bummer but, again, I think we are going to see a little higher total while they learn to play with each other. Alot of these guys have never been known to be high turnover guys. Anyway, I personally saw some encouraging things in the game (defense, getting open shots, etc.) and I hope they can work out the kinks before opening night. I'm not trying to make excuses for a pour outing, but these are just some observations I had watching the game. I REALLY hope Yao's elbow is not too serious to force him to miss any time. YIKES!
I thought we won't hear anything with the word 'unselfish' about the team this season., well, I guess I was wrong...
It looked to me like TMac wasn't really playing full effort on offense last nite. Penetrating and getting into the lane is the bread + butter of his game but he seemed to be shying away from contact and settling for the jumper instead. Maybe he doesn't want to risk injury in a pre-season game - i don't know. But I only saw him try to get to the basket twice, and this is probably why he didn't get to the line too many times either. He was very active on defense at least.
One positive I took from last night's game was that T-Mac shot the ball 23 times. This is important because I feared that JVG would reduce his offensive role to that of any other player not named Yao. Last year, when Yao was either on the bench or ineffective, the offense completely bogged down. This was because our second best player and most talented player, Steve, also happened to be our point guard. It was his job to initiate the offense and get others involved, so he wasn't allowed to try and score. Thus, many times you saw the likes of Mo Taylor become the primary go-to man for long periods of time. Not good. I think this preseason has indicated that unlike with Steve, if it's not in Yao's hands, it's going to be all McGrady, all the time. I like this. T-Mac is a natural scorer and this team needs that. Yao, as a passing center, needs that. Finally, I think we're getting some sort of idea as to what T-Mac's stats will look like this year. I would have guess he'de get around 18-19 ppg before the preseason, but the number of shots he's taken point more towards a stat line of 25ppg, 6rpg, 5apg, 2spg. If we win 50+, that gets MVP consideration.
It's kinda simple defending Yao, he has tons of trouble when players front him. Popovich knows this. If he can ever perfect his play with a defender fronting him he will be vying for MVP.
I keep thinking of the Kings back when they had that amazing offseason not too long ago. They traded for Webber, signed Vlade, and drafted White Chocolate all in one summer, and everything changed. They started kicking ass from the get-go. And they were employing a somewhat complex offense. What year was that? What seed were they in the playoffs? Didn't they suddenly jump from joke of the league to 4th seed or something? Or take the rockets back in 96 when we got Barkley. Very new cast. Starting lineup of Maloney, Barkley, Hakeem, Glyde, Mario. But we kicked butt right from the beginning, won over 50 games, lost to Utah in the WCF in 6 games (could have faced Jordan and the Bulls, arrrgh.) Now, Rudy's system was easy to learn. Can any other people think of examples where players were put together and it just plain worked from the beginning? I'm going to guess that this is more the exception than the rule. How about that Orlando team composed of total nobodys that were thrown together when the team was gutted led by Doc Rivers that made it to the 8 seed? Or examples of drastically altered teams that just couldn't put it together, even if they had the talent? Our olympic teams are very obvious examples. They've been completely exposed by inferior players who play well together. Just wondering, really. I personally think that we've got some players with brains who will put it together, but that for the most part is based on faith. We'll see what happens on the floor real soon.
Nor should they. They've been playing together for over four years and brought another long-time teammate with them to Orlando.
I know but Nesterovic isn't really quick enough to do this effectively as other players (players with the initials of EN, and I don't mean Emerald Nuts) have and doesn't seem to bring too much D to the table except for when he suits up against us. Maybe it is just a reflection of the spurs status as a top Defensive team.
As more times goes by watching Yao, it's going to be interesting how he deals with guys like Nesterovic, Najara, and Miller. Laterally quicker, shorter C/PF and SF. Plus, a lot of these guys come to PLAY (100%) because they don't want to be a Yao-victim. Do guys like this "have Yao's number?" We'll see.
I don't know if it will play out this way, but I sure enjoyed reading your analysis. If T-Mac is able to score like you think is now a possibility, it's going to open things up for everyone else even more than expected. That would be awesome if it happens, and translate into mucho W's.
i agree with your take on last year and if jvg does to tmac what he did to francis, we won't have to worry about firing him b/c i'll have already killed him.
That's the anomaly. Nesterovic isn't a "quicker shorter C/PF", he's a 260 lb. 7 footer. Basically your classic big ole stiff. Yao should eat him for lunch. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/playoffs/2004-05-05-nesterovic_x.htm I remember starting a thread last year early in the season where Yao totally douched Ben Wallace (the prototypical shorter stronger player that he should have trouble with) on a Friday night and then got punked by Nesterovic a few days later next game. Nobody had an answer then and I dont' have one now, it makes no sense