Vancouver Sun Reaction to Last Nights Game

Stevie 'Wonder' makes it a night to remember down at the Garage

Rookie point guard ties game with 2.6 seconds left and then hits key three-pointer in overtime.
Gary Kingston Vancouver sun Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun / BOXED IN: Houston Rockets' Steve Francis (centre) is surrounded by Grizzlies Monday at GM Place.

Can Steve Francis make it to GM Place for every game?
With the most hated man (petulant kid? sourpuss?) in Vancouver basketball history inciting the crowd with his mere presence, the Garage took on a raucous, playoff-style, New York-rowdy atmosphere Monday, the likes of which have rarely, if ever, been seen here.
Unfortunately for the Vancouver Grizzlies and the 15,086 faithful, Francis, the reluctant draft pick who thumbed his nose at the city and the team and forced a trade to Houston, showed that he's got superstar talent to back up his cocky demeanor.
The rookie point guard forced overtime with a 21-foot jumper with 2.6 seconds left in regulation, then kick-started a 6-0 Rockets' run with a three-pointer to open overtime as Houston won a 118-110 emotional thriller.
Francis, the subject of raunchy taunts, clever signs and thrown tomatoes, was brilliant. He had 24 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and nary a single turnover before fouling out with 2:45 left in overtime. By that time, Houston had a 111-105 lead that was soon stretched to an insurmountable nine-point margin when Matt Bullard hit his second trey of the extra session.
"I think I just played Steve Francis basketball today," said Francis. "And as a team, we helped each other out when we were down."
"I noticed 'Francis sucks,'" said the Maryland product of the crowd's most vociferous chant. "I mean, I was singing it myself. It was cute and that was something they wanted to do."
What wasn't cute was the juvenile and dangerous throwing of objects - the tomato that came within about 10 feet of Francis, a lemon and a tennis ball. After the tomato was thrown while the Rockets were at the free throw line, a shaken Francis told one referee he wasn't going back on the floor.
He did, of course. And after the the game, he joked about coming back to Vancouver "in the summer with a hat and a moustache and chill with my family and sister and stuff like that."
Despite Francis' on-court heroics, the Grizzlies, who lost their eighth straight in dropping to 3-11, should have had a victory. They twice led by four points in the final minute. But Cuttino Mobley sandwiched a three-pointer with 10.8 seconds left between a pair of one-make, one-miss trips to the foul line by Vancouver point guard Mike Bibby before Francis hit the shot that tied the score at 100.
"We've got to learn how to stop talking about an ear-wet rookie prone to turnovers and trash talk, a flashy but ultimately shallow NBA dilettante who uses God to shield himself from what was, in its purest form, a selfish, greed-filled decision based on nothing more than an opportunity to make a few million extra someplace where it didn't rain.
If Steve Francis took the court last night a symbol of the NBA's image problems, he reminded us of the Grizzlies own problems too. Specifically at point guard.
Mike Bibby is not the only problem the Grizzlies have had so far this season. But he may be the biggest.
Understand, the position Bibby plays is the wheel that steers the ship, the quarterback who runs the offence. And so far his arrival in the NBA has been more glub, glub than cannons blasting. And while no one is saying so publicly, Brian Hill and GM Stu Jackson must be wondering if this is as good as it's going to get with the much-heralded wunderkid from Arizona.
Bibby was never expected to be flashy.
Not like Francis, or Jason Williams. But he was expected to be able to penetrate with the basketball, drawing pressure and then dishing off to a wide open Shareef or Big Country for the kind of easy baskets the Grizzlies never seem to get.
But you can count on one foot the number of games Bibby has shown the moxie to go inside with the ball.
"It will come," Hill says of his point guard, who was ignited Monday night by Francis' presence.
Which leads to the question: Where has that Mike Bibby been until now?
Let's not forget Bibby is one of three guards Stu Jackson has drafted.
There was Antonio Daniels. There was Bibby. And Steve Francis. And unless Bibby is a late bloomer, that's 0-3 in the point guard department. Which, when you're building a franchise, is, well, not the way you build a franchise.
Compounding Hill's problem with Bibby is that he really has no one to throw in ahead of him. Brent Price, while a wonderful human being who occasionally can get hot from outside, is not a guard who could play the type of minutes that would allow Hill the opportunity to break Bibby in gradually.
Othella Harrington and Michael Dickerson, meantime, the two key players arriving here in the Steve Francis trade, have had mixed success in a Grizzlies uniform so far.
Harrington has played beyond many people's expectations and has become more of a scoring force than anticipated. Dickerson, on the other hand, has been a disappointment early in the season. His much ballyhooed outside shot more clang than swish.
Shareef has been Shareef. And, of course, if more of his teammates were like him, they wouldn't find themselves in the pickle they are today. But even he has shown signs of flagging under the constant weight of his teammates' ineptitude.
Which leaves us with Big Country, who seems destined to be nothing more than a middle-of-the-road NBA centre. Unless, of course, a wonky knee that Grizzlies officials are more worried about than they're letting on, erodes his talent even further.
All in all, a miserable state of affairs for a team in the fifth year of its existence.
"We suck and you all suck," said Houston's Charles Barkley, putting Monday night's game in some perspective.
"It's a battle of the have nots." What more can you say?
E-mail: garmason@direct.ca
ROCKETS 118 at GRIZZLIES 110 (OT)
GAME RATING
Rating four
Everything was good about this game - including Steve Francis - except the ending. The Grizzlies simply don't seem to have the players who can hold a lead down the stretch.
STARS OF THE GAME
Grizzlies: Point guard Mike Bibby broke out of a lengthy slump and scored a season-high 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting. But that only made Bibby the second best point guard on the floor Monday night.
Rockets: This won't be a popular choice, but Steve Francis was the big reason Houston won. Hit a jumper with 2.6 seconds in regulation to force overtime, then nailed a three-pointer to start extra time. By the time he fouled out, he had 24 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and no turnovers.

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"Excuse me while I kiss the sky....." - Steve Francis