[The Plain Dealer]Cavs' plans are firm as Rockets juggle

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Cavs' plans are firm as Rockets juggle
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Branson Wright
Plain Dealer Reporter
The Cavaliers will face the constant changing Houston Rockets at Gund Arena on Wednesday following tonight's road game against the Atlanta Hawks.

The Rockets' revolving door began last summer when a blockbuster seven-player trade with the Orlando Magic brought Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Tyronn Lue and Reece Gaines to Houston for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato. Recently, the Rockets traded Lue to the Hawks for Jon Barry and on Tuesday, the Rockets acquired David Wesley from New Orleans for 13-year veteran Jim Jackson and Bostjan Nachbar.


Jackson played with the Cavaliers, including eight other teams - Dallas, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Golden State, Portland, Atlanta, Miami and Sacramento - before signing as a free agent with Houston.

Coach Paul Silas said the latest trade will not change anything for the Cavs. Yao Ming and McGrady remain the two biggest challenges.

"Tracy is the biggest challenge because he's really attacking and at one point he wasn't," Silas said. "Since he's been attacking, everyone's energy has gone up as a result. You can't really look at their record and say that they're not getting it right now because they are. We have to find away to slow [Yao and McGrady] down."

Good luck.

The Rockets were projected as one of the top teams in the league because of the off-season trade that brought McGrady to Texas. He gave the Rockets another weapon to play alongside Yao. But things didn't start off so well as the Rockets lost 11 of their first 17 games.

Things are starting to change.

The Rockets have won seven of their last 10 and McGrady is averaging 25 points per game in his last 11 games.

On Dec. 2, he scored a season-high 48 points in an overtime loss against Dallas. McGrady heads into tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks averaging 23 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists.

"It looks like once they got McGrady, they've improved a lot on paper but they struggled early on and that was because they were trying to see how they fit in," center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said. "From what I've seen now, they're improving. Out West is tough but the combination of T-Mac and Yao present a challenge every night for every team."

Silas said it was only a matter of time before the Rockets would turn things around.

"People think that you can just instantly make changes and it will work," Silas said. "Changes take time to jell together and it's taking them time to find the right thing that will make it click and they have now. Before, they were just feeling each other out, now it's just clicking."

Yao, at 7-6 and 310 pounds, is a major contributor to that click. He's ninth in the league in field goal percentage (51.7) and 17th in the league in rebounds at nine per game. With Shaquille O'Neal now in the East, Yao is the most dominant center in the West.

"His size is a challenge in itself and he's put together with a strong base and you can't move him easily off the block," said Ilgauskas, who is 7-3. "He has nice post-up moves and he has a nice touch from the outside. I've played against a few taller guys but he's different because the combination of his strength and finesse is rare for a guy his size."

Yao's also on a roll. He has three straight double-doubles, which includes 40 points and 10 rebounds against the Toronto Raptors last week. Cavs assistant coach Kenny Natt is familiar with Yao's dominating performances. Natt was an assistant in Utah for the past nine seasons. He said Yao is a tough matchup because of his size.

"We're going to have to come up with some kind of strategy to keep the ball away from him as much as possible," Natt said. "They're playing now the way everyone thought they would play. One of their problems before is that they weren't getting the ball to Yao Ming."

The Rockets are 13-14 in the Southwest Conference behind the first-place San Antonio Spurs and the second-place Dallas Mavericks. The Rockets are playing well but so are the Cavs, especially at home. "Atlanta's not going to be a pushover, it's going to be a hell of a game but the plus in facing Houston is that we are at home," Silas said. "We've established a nice home-court advantage but you still have to play and play well. If we play well, I like our chances.

Big return:

Robert "Tractor" Traylor returned to action on Sunday against the New Orleans Hornets. It was Traylor's first action since breaking his left pinky finger on Dec. 7 against the New Jersey Nets.

"I felt rejuvenated," said Traylor, who scored six points and had two rebounds in 19 minutes. "I felt great to be back on the court helping and just playing."

Traylor said he didn't have much discomfort and the injury didn't affect his play.

"The broken finger is on my guide hand so I was comfortable shooting the ball," Traylor said. "Catching the ball was also easy. I wanted to play so bad that I would've played as soon as I got off the operating table after breaking my finger."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

bwright@plaind.com, 216-999-6136



?2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.