Chron: Rockets fall, want more of wolves

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2474283


Steve Francis smacked Kevin Garnett across the arms. Garnett popped Francis with a forearm. And the faces of two franchises stood inches apart, motionless, glaring angrily at one another as if to send messages that the 47 minutes that could not separate the Rockets and Timberwolves had not.
Garnett looked down at Francis, as the Timberwolves do in the playoff pecking order at the Rockets, with his most menacing of stare. Francis glowered back, as if to announce that he would not go away.

This is what Houston has been missing.

The playoffs -- never mind a first-round matchup with the Timberwolves -- might not be certain yet. But when the Timberwolves emerged on Monday with a 94-88 win at Toyota Center when Garnett made his last tough jumper and Yao Ming missed his, they seemed more at hand than in years.

"I hope we can see them again in the playoffs," Yao said. "I hope we can play this kind of game but with a different result."

Though the Rockets would not admit it, both teams seemed to play the game as readying the playoff soil. The Timberwolves had lost their previous four trips to Houston, and two of three previous meetings with the Rockets this season, and said they needed to send a message. But after falling behind by 10 in the first half and nine in the fourth quarter, the Rockets rallied back to take the game to its final seconds.

"Many times games come down to a make or a miss," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We missed tonight and they made. Tough loss."

The make and miss that finally separated them came in the final minute. Garnett had answered Francis' foul and stare-down with a pair of free throws for an 88-86 lead with 41.7 seconds left, but Francis immediately answered with a jumper from 14 feet.

The Timberwolves went back to Garnett, and he split Maurice Taylor and Yao, squeezing through just enough to drop in a tough fadeaway from 10 feet that put the Wolves back in front by two with 18.8 seconds remaining.

The Rockets called time out and set up the play with which Francis tied the game at the buzzer a night before, but Latrell Sprewell smacked the inbounds pass away and Van Gundy changed the play. He instead called for a play that frees Yao on the perimeter, away from the double teams that could disrupt the best plans.

The play worked as drawn. Francis drove to the lane, pulling the defense with him. Yao was wide open at 18 feet out. His shot came up short with 10.9 seconds left, however, and with it, so did the Rockets.

"Steve played it great, drove it deep, drew two guys, Yao wide open, great play," Van Gundy said.

Francis was so confident in Yao's shot, he raised his arms triumphantly as Yao released.

"I would give him that shot every time," Francis said. "That's a shot he makes all the time."

Once the Rockets had climbed back in to the game and to a lead, neither team could build much of a cushion again well into the fourth quarter. The Timberwolves led by four briefly, but that lasted just 22 seconds. The Rockets never led by more than a field goal.

But with the game tied, 70-70, early in the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves made a move, and the Rockets began to crack.

Sprewell knocked down a trey and Mobley missed one, before the Timberwolves grabbed the offensive rebound of consecutive Sprewell misses, with Wally Szczerbiak twice hitting jumpers to make the Rockets pay. When Szczerbiak knocked down a pair of free throws, the Timberwolves had a 9-0 run to a 79-70 lead, and with two more missed shots, the Rockets had made just 1 of 10 shots to begin the fourth quarter.

But just when they tip-toed to the brink of blowout, the Rockets came alive again. Francis ricocheted a Mobley miss to Taylor inside, for a layup and a three-point play. Mobley then pulled up on a break for a 3-pointer. When Mobley blocked a Sprewell shot, he took off on a break. And after grabbing the rebound of a Garnett miss, Francis led Jim Jackson on a break to complete a 10-0 sprint to a one-point lead with 3 1/2 minutes to play.

Garnett regained the Timberwolves' lead with a pair of free throws, his first points of the fourth quarter.

But after a Taylor follow and Yao layup, the Rockets led, 84-81, their largest lead of the night, with 2:18 to play.

But nothing to that point gave any indication that the finish could be even that lopsided, as 29 ties or lead changes gave a pretty good idea this one would be decided not in the final minutes, but in the final seconds.

The Timberwolves might not have seen the Rockets coming. At the start of the game, they offered few signs of a second-quarter ambush.

It wasn't so much that the Rockets weren't playing hard. But they were loose, unnecessarily sloppy offensively and haphazard defensively. The Timberwolves took their lead to 22-12 with 3:33 left in the first quarter, making 10 of their first 15 shots.

When Troy Hudson was left alone for a 10-footer at the buzzer - with the Rockets holding a foul to give - the Timberwolves led 28-20 heading into the second quarter without too much difficulty.

The lead was still at eight four minutes into the second quarter, but the Rockets defense was beginning to stiffen. The Timberwolves missed five consecutive shots, all perimeter jumpers. Yao began a 9-0 run with a fast break slam, and competed it a with a turnaround jumper that gave the Rockets their first lead, 36-35.

After six more lead changes in the final five minutes of the half, a tough turnaround jumper by Jackson had the Rockets ahead, 43-43, at halftime.