The wild, wild West By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports May 1, 2007 HOUSTON – Shoes off, stocking feet on his desk, Jeff Van Gundy had marched out of his news conference and into the silence of his Toyota Center office. Above his desk, there's the framed story of his late college mentor, Bud Presley, a small-school legend in the Bay Area and the toughest coach Van Gundy ever met. There was plenty of the coach's words in his old player's voice late Monday when Van Gundy was railing against that most ruthless playoff adversary: human nature. "I would say that anybody who would think that we have two games to win one has no idea," Van Gundy said. "[Tracy] McGrady could go out at any time. Yao [Ming] could have one of those lethargic games." Tracy McGrady had played the part of a superstar with 26 points and 16 assists, and his undrafted, undersized power forward, Chuck Hayes, took a charge on Derek Fisher in the final seconds of the Houston Rockets' telltale 96-92 Game 5 victory over the Utah Jazz. The Rockets inched closer to Houston history, on the cusp of winning a playoff series for the first time in a decade (and the first for McGrady and Yao). They go back to Utah with a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, and Van Gundy feared that feeling of momentary contentment. "Nobody here has experienced any playoff success, except for Dikembe [Mutombo] and myself," he said. ADVERTISEMENT The Rockets have been pounded twice in Salt Lake City in this series, and odds are they will lose again to bring a Game 7 back to Houston on Saturday. Van Gundy's message on bringing some mettle to Utah for Game 6 was underscored with that perilous proposition that are these NBA playoffs. As the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs moved within a victory of closing out the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, all hell is breaking loose on Houston's side of the bracket. Suddenly, the path to the Western Conference finals wouldn't be through the best team in the NBA, the bigger, deeper Dallas Mavericks, but perhaps the best story of the tournament, Don Nelson's go-go Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are threatening to transform the West playoffs with a stunning, suffocating beatdown on Dallas. Rockets guard Rafer Alston marveled, "You've got to be shocked by what they're doing. Everyone should be shocked. I don't think anybody should sit there and say that they knew this was going to happen because nobody knew this was going to happen." As one Eastern Conference executive remembered, there was a warning sign that this could happen. Two years ago, Avery Johnson, then a rookie coach, rested his starters upon clinching the No. 4 seed and found his players unfit for responding to the ferocity of the playoffs. The Mavericks dropped Games 1 and 2 at home to the Rockets and trailed by six points late in Game 3 before saving themselves, and the series, and commandeering a comeback for a seven-game series victory. "So why in the world did [Johnson] do this again to himself?" the executive asked. "Why did he sit his guys at the end of the season because it's obvious they went into the playoffs not ready to pick right back up where they left off – especially with what they knew the Warriors were bringing them." If nothing else, it was enough to get Dallas off-balance. The Mavericks haven't recovered, and on Tuesday, they're on the verge of going down the way a No. 1 seed has never done in a best-of-seven series – to a No. 8. This has been the wild west in these playoffs, and if the Rockets just find a way to steal one more game from the Jazz, a most improbable team will find its way into the Western Conference finals. Houston's Alston wasn't trying to peek past Utah; he was just answering a question on Golden State. He loves watching the Warriors and envies the way they play. "A great brand of basketball," he said. "But you need some low-post play, some big bodies. There will come a time when someone will just pound the ball down inside on you." The Rockets are within a victory of getting that shot, and late Monday night, Jeff Van Gundy was trying to sell his team on finding a way to get it in Salt Lake. They've been destroyed there twice in the past week, but they try again on Thursday. The Warriors could be waiting. Wild, wild west, indeed. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...YF?slug=aw-wildwest050107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Good find! A Rockets win and an GS win could open the door for a Houston vs spurs/pheonix matchup in the western conference finals. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Its not going to be easy to get the clincher
Why does everyone just assume we are going to lose game 6? We had horrible shooting nights, it happens, but its not like the jazz were world beaters in game 3. Momentum has swung back in our favor, and we finally had a decent shooting game last night.
I'll definately be rooting for SA in that series, much more symetrical matchup for the Rox in WCF if they can get by GS!
I knew the GSW was gonna pound the Mavs ;p People really forgot about how important Don Nelson was to the Mavs organization when they were making their early predictions
According to Adrian, just because the Rockets were the 5 seed means the Rockets need to "steal" games in order to upset the 4 seed Jazz, just like the Warriors are upsetting the Mavs. Sheesh.
I agree. If the roxs come out and play at least at 85% we can beat Utah in game 6. Why? b/c we are a better team. We would have been seeded much higher if not for the injuries. AND the bench has come back to life. Game 6 Yao will regain his shooting touch.
I think that's a product of Adrian taking some liberties in his writing. Rafer never actually stated that he envied or preferred that style of basketball, he just said that it was an effective brand of basketball.....until someone pounds it inside on you.
Why do people automatically assume we can beat the Warriors if it comes to that? That team is scary right now and is on the verge of beating the best team in the league. Not to mention, it's the type of team the Rockets just have not been able to match up at all with. I just don't get the mentality that, "They are dominating the best team in the league, but hey, we should have no trouble getting past them!"
it is worrisome...but you just gotta have faith man. I agree though, one game at a time baby, one game at a time...
I think this is why Les is going to choose to part ways with JVG. Why in hell do you make that kind of a remark to a reporter after a win. The media and fans are idiots. T-Mac is fragile. Yao is sometimes lazy. Utterly brilliant.
Honestly - the Jazz have dominated us in their two wins, and we have squeaked by in our wins for the most part. The Jazz know they will rough us up in Utah and that game 7 is going to be a nail-bitter. Thank goodness we had home-court advantage. You never know what this team is made off and how they will respond, but if history is any indicator, game 6 isn't going to be one for Rockets fans to remember.
