http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/1645249 Nov. 3, 2002, 12:50AM Rockets summary Opening sellout The Rockets drew a sellout crowd of 16,285 for the home opener, their first opening sellout since the 1999 season. The game was part of two of the new mini-ticket plans. Rockets president and chief executive officer George Postolos said attendance will jump when games are included in one or more plans but that Saturday's crowd was not the result of the ticket plans as much as the unique circumstance. "This really isn't due to the mini-plans," he said. "There has been way more interest for Yao Ming's first home game. There is a sense that something historic is happening at Compaq Center. We expected a much larger crowd than last year's opening night (9,500) or the year before (11,327), even though there's a smaller ticket base. "Attendance will be spikier this year. The idea to generate this kind of interest is terrific. It puts us in a position to create momentum. I think we'll see some great crowds. "We've seen sales picking up even for Tuesday's game (against the SuperSonics). We had 60 percent more single-game sales in the preseason than last year." Mutual respect As happy as Yao Ming was to have Chinese recording artist Coco Lee perform Saturday night, the Hong Kong-born singer was even more thrilled. "Other than performing at the Oscars, this is the biggest moment in my career, singing in the NBA," said Lee, who sang the national anthem and Don't You Want My Love. Lee has recorded 16 albums, including one in English, and is known for A Love Before Time, the theme song from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which she sang at last year's Academy Awards. She was originally asked to perform at the 2002 NBA All-Star Game but was on tour in China at the time. The 5-4 Lee called Yao "gigantic" and said she didn't want to miss this opportunity to welcome him to the United States. "For Chinese people, it's a very proud moment," said Lee. "Hopefully, there will be many more people from China or Asia that can play in the NBA." Behind the zone For all the contributing factors in the Rockets' offensive struggles in the first two games, they were far from alone. In the season's first three days, 19 teams failed to score 90 points, with 13 failing to reach 80 and two failing to score 70. With the start of the second year of defensive rules that allow most zones, teams have done much more to take advantage than they did early last season. Offenses seem to need time to catch up. "You just try to take care of your own problems, but everybody is having problems with offense," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "Coaches in this league are going to try to find ways within the rules to defend, especially now with the defenses where they're running across the lane and clogging up options and the flow of the game. A zone will take the flow of the game away. That's just common sense. Everybody knows it takes more time to break a zone than a man-to-man." It also takes time to generate the feel for new teammates while playing new offenses that demand cohesiveness. "Chemistry has always been important," Tomjanovich said. "There has never been a time it wasn't important. It's the beauty of this sport, when it turns from uncomfortable and struggling to flowing. There's so much freedom in the game of basketball. It's one of the hardest sports to run on high cylinders. There's always temptations on every play. "In baseball, you don't have second basemen running over to play third base. In basketball, everybody can share the ball, everybody has to play defense, and there's so much teamwork involved, and you see veteran teams that have been together struggle." Magic words Rockets rookie Juaquin Hawkins heard just what he wanted to hear in the second half of Friday's game, and he rewarded coach Rudy Tomjanovich. Tomjanovich told Hawkins to stop passing up open shots, and Hawkins quickly hit two jumpers down the stretch to help clinch the Rockets' first win. Asked what he thought about hearing such direct encouragement from the boss, Hawkins said, "It's lovely." "Any time you're not shooting well, you want any encouragement from your teammates," Hawkins said. "To hear it from the head coach, to have him say, `Keep on shooting,' that he has confidence in you and believes in you, you feel great. I just decided to let it fly. I didn't worry if I hit or miss. I just tried to take good shots and concentrate on it going in." -- JONATHAN FEIGEN
The more you hear about Juaquin Hawkins the more you gotta like him,,..Rudy has done it again..........
Hey Codell, Were ranked 4th in the West and SA is 6th... Midwest W L PCT GB Conf Div Home Road L 10 Streak Dallas(2) 2 0 1.000 0.0 2-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 2-0 Won 2 Houston(4) 2 1 0.667 0.5 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-1 2-1 Won 2 Minnesota(5) 2 1 0.667 0.5 1-0 1-0 2-0 0-1 2-1 Lost 1 San Antonio(6) 2 1 0.667 0.5 1-1 0-0 1-0 1-1 2-1 Won 1 Utah(7) 1 2 0.333 1.5 1-0 0-0 1-0 0-2 1-2 Won 1 Denver(8) 1 2 0.333 1.5 1-2 0-2 0-1 1-1 1-2 Won 1 Memphis 0 3 0.000 2.5 0-2 0-1 0-2 0-1 0-3 Lost 3 Pacific W L PCT GB Conf Div Home Road L 10 Streak Sacramento(1) 3 0 1.000 0.0 2-0 1-0 2-0 1-0 3-0 Won 3 Seattle(3) 2 0 1.000 0.5 2-0 2-0 1-0 1-0 2-0 Won 2 Portland 1 2 0.333 2.0 1-2 1-1 1-1 0-1 1-2 Lost 2 L.A. Lakers 1 2 0.333 2.0 1-2 1-1 0-1 1-1 1-2 Won 1 Golden State 1 2 0.333 2.0 1-2 0-1 1-1 0-1 1-2 Lost 2 Phoenix 1 2 0.333 2.0 0-2 0-1 1-0 0-2 1-2 Lost 1 L.A. Clippers 0 2 0.000 2.5 0-1 0-1 0-2 0-0 0-2 Lost 2 x-Clinched Playoff Berth | e-Clinched Eastern Conference | a-Clinched Atlantic Division | c-Clinched Central Division | w-Clinched Western Conference | m-Clinched Midwest Division | p-Clinched Pacific Division
If only playoff seedings were decided on alphabetical listings ....we would be #2, which would put us top 4 in the west .
No it isn't (Utah aheard of Denver?) Rocket Addict is correct, the San Antoino conf. loss is the tiebreaker. Notice Utah is ahead of Denver because of The Nuggets 0-2 Conf. record. I have no idea why we're ahead of Minnesota though. That may be alphabetical.
