http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4366117.html Rockets find groove, win 4th straight T-Wolves' rally in 4th is no worry; McGrady injured The 11-point fourth-quarter lead was gone. The Rockets were reeling. The Minnesota Timberwolves were rolling. But this has happened so many times that by Tuesday's closing stretch it seemed less a Rockets shortcoming than a goofy plan, as if they have blown all those fourth-quarter leads to somehow steel themselves for the final minutes. Even if far from intentional, they surged through the final minutes Tuesday to an 82-75 win over the Timberwolves before 12,709 fans at Toyota Center, then no longer felt the need to quibble about how they got there or even that Tracy McGrady was not sure if he could play tonight in Phoenix with a bruised abdomen. "Actually, at the point it's getting close, I'm not nervous," Yao Ming said. "I didn't feel worried. That's the way we play. We've gone through this many times." Even Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, laughingly calling himself the Norman Vincent Peale of positive coaching spin, happily pointed past the fine print and to the bottom line, with the Rockets' 10 wins their most in November since they went 15-1 in 1996. "We didn't let them back in," Van Gundy said. "That's the negative way of looking at it. The more positive way of looking at it is that they did some good things because they're pros and they're trying. The same thing happened last night in Dallas. "People get preoccupied with different things. What matters is you win. It doesn't matter how you start or how you finish. It's about winning." Looking on bright side Van Gundy, however, might have become focused on the bright side after McGrady did not seem nearly as damaged as he looked when he left the court with one of the long, pained walks that became familiar sights last season. McGrady, who returned to play 20 relatively effective second-half minutes, had bruised an abdominal muscle in a collision with former teammate Mike James. "I don't know if it was an elbow or a kick," McGrady said. "Whatever it was, it was a painful hit in my abdomen. It was tough for me to breathe every step that I took. It was a painful blow." McGrady said the pain worsened through the game, putting his availability tonight into question. But that was nowhere near as frightening a prospect as a repeat of last season's back problems. "Last year is a very deep memory for us," Yao said. "Hopefully, that will never happen again." The Rockets showed progress since last season just by being able to close out the win in the final four minutes without McGrady's scoring. McGrady finished with eight points, making just four of 14 shots. He did not attempt a shot in the final 7 1/2 minutes after hanging in the air and twisting to a jumper to beat the shot clock. McGrady passed inside to Yao for a slam on the next possession, but with the Timberwolves in the zone that locked up the Mavericks in the fourth quarter on Monday, Minnesota completed its run back from an 11-point deficit to tie the game 68-68, with 4:42 left. That's when the Rockets righted themselves, starting with Shane Battier's corner 3 just before the shot-clock buzzer. Battier hits five 3s "Rafer (Alston) drove to the baseline and (Marko) Jaric ran out there pretty hard," said Battier, who made all five of his 3-pointers to finish with 17 points. "I was lucky I glanced up and saw one second (on the shot clock). I was just trying to get it off, hit the rim and hopefully we could get the rebound, but it went down." A possession later, he nailed another 3-pointer before Alston made his customary late offensive surge. After making two of his first 13 shots, Alston nailed a 3-pointer and then sank a tear-drop in the lane for a 79-70 lead with 1:46 left. "We're getting there, but we're still not getting better at sustaining the lead," Alston said. "Hopefully, we can take a 10-point lead to a 15-point lead. The best thing for us is we continue to play the defense we're playing in the fourth. If we keep fighting and rebounding the ball, we'll find a way to make some shots." That almost seemed to be the plan, until Battier revealed they might have something else in mind. "It's kind of exciting," Battier said, "to think if we can put it together and play well for 48 minutes what we can do." seems yao is fine otherwise they would have said something. hopefully tracy is ok for tomorrow but atleast it's not the back.
post game quotes here: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Game_Quotes_Rockets_82_Timbe-197485-34.html edit: watch the van gundy post-game video they put up. good stuff. first time i've seen that, hopefully they start that for every game.
ha, sorry, go here: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Battier_sinks_Wolves_with_five-197486-34.html click on press conference underneath the headline.
I hope Yao wasn't limping because of foot problems. Did Mike James try to take out both T-Mac (elbow to the ribs) and Yao (stomp on his foot?) for revenge?
Good god there were less than 13000 fans at the game. The Vancouver Grizzlies used to average 17000 a game and they're freaking Vancouver. Seriously, we must be one of the worst teams in terms of attendance. (but we're also top 5 in ticket price so Les better be making enough money)
mike james was silent tonight...except for what he did to tmac...i am really worried about tmac's injury
Ehhhh T-Mac's injury...it's not the back at least, and it sounds like it's not long term. I want to see him at least give it a TRY in Phoenix, even if he can't finish the game it'd say a lot if he at least tried.
Van Gundy always looks so depressed. He looks like he has to sovle the North Korean nuclear problem and Iraq civil war problem at the same time by tomorrow.
I think he will end up playing (knock on wood). We have 2 days off before the Cavs game which should help.
Blount thinks he is the same player as Yao. If it is the case , Timberwolves should have been at least 8-6 instead of 6-8. What a joke!!!
We play Phoenix on a back-to-back. If we're missing T-Mac, now's the time to activate Wells and play him some minutes. The only way we can beat Phoenix if we slow the game down like hell, letting Yao and Wells abuse them in the post with Alston, Battier, and Head hitting open 3's. We have to hold them to 85 points. I'm not sure we can sustain that kind of defensive effort for 48 minutes though. We'll see.
It was another night, another comeback attempt for Minnesota, but this time Houston was able to turn away a rally with some timely three-pointers. Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune HOUSTON - In terms of their bottom line, the Timberwolves' plot-twisting, heart-stopping, no-flipping, late-game dramatics hasn't been going so well lately: Three cardiac comebacks in their past three games, but only a 1-2 record. In terms of some seriously hacked-off opposing head coaches, though, the Wolves haven't missed yet. What the Clippers' Mike Dunleavy dealt with in Minneapolis on Saturday and what Avery Johnson cold-sweated through in Dallas on Monday, Houston's Jeff Van Gundy got a load of in his team's 82-75 victory at the Toyota Center on Tuesday night. Down (again) after three quarters, this time 54-47, the Wolves clawed back (again) to tie, this time 68-68 with 4 minutes, 42 seconds emaining. Everything Van Gundy and his staff had scouted on video -- rookie guard Randy Foye taking over, Minnesota running a 12-minute roundball version of football's two-minute drill -- was happening live before their eyes. In another 24 hours, it would become a teaching opportunity, same as with Dunleavy and Johnson. As it took place, though, it was no fun and completely unacceptable. Van Gundy angrily called one time out, then another a few minutes later. Later, he tried to give credit, rather than lay blame. "We didn't 'let them back in the game,' because that's the negative way to look at it," he said. "The more positive way to look at it is that they did some good things because they're pros and they're trying." Trying like crazy lately. In the final quarter. Down the hall, Wolves coach Dwane Casey was fielding irritating questions, too. Such as: Can't your team play the first three quarters the way it plays the fourth? And: What's so different about that fourth? "Definitely our intensity level goes up," Casey said. "Attack mode goes up. We were getting into the paint, we were playing basketball. We were making smart decisions. I think that was the difference in the fourth quarter." Unfortunately, the whole comeback strategy only works if the other team misses a series of increasingly desperate shots. And it absolutely fails if, instead of hitting two-pointers, that team catches fire in time to score repeatedly from three-point range. Finding space against a Wolves zone defense that had been pretty helpful to that point, the Rockets nailed three consecutive shots from the arc to bust that 68-68 tie and cripple the comeback. Shane Battier hit twice from the right corner, first with Marko Jaric pestering him, next with Troy Hudson running over. Then Yao Ming passed out front to Rafer Alston, whose 26-footer made it 77-70. The Wolves (6-8) got only one more basket after that. "I can't tell you why," said Foye, who scored his team's first seven points in the rally. "In the fourth quarter, we're trying to execute and make a run, but sometimes it's too late." Defensively, Minnesota was fine; Houston (10-4) shot 38 percent. Take away Yao (25 points, 10 rebounds) and the other Rockets were 19-of-64. Offensively, however, the Wolves were a mess. Only Kevin Garnett (25 points, 11 boards) had reached double figures until Foye joined in with his last basket. They scored a season-low 31 points in the first half and got off 65 shots overall, another season low that can be traced directly to 20 turnovers and six offensive rebounds. http://www.startribune.com/511/story/841118.html
99bb, you might a rookie on this board but can you read? "He seems to me to be the same player, but they are going to him a lot more often" Translation: Yao seems to be the same player (as before), but (now) they are going to him more often (than before). I bet most will beg to differ though. I think Yao is a different player with his added strength and assertiveness. And it is the new Yao that leads to us going to him more often.
If what you said about the ticket price is true, then something is wrong with the business plan. If you can bring in 20% more fans into the TC by lowering the price for 20%, you got same money out of the ticket sale but the team and the win/lose result would be much different, at least 3 - 5 more home wins I think. That will boost the ticket sale as well. Maybe business is not that simple, maybe there are just no enough Rockets fans in H-town regardless the ticket price?
Actually that math is wrong. What you're actually getting is 1.2 * .8 = .96% of what you would originally get.
