Rockets at Mavericks According to the Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...mavs/stories/110607dnspomavslede.32b5052.html

Jet-fueled Dallas Mavericks down Rockets

01:37 AM CST on Tuesday, November 6, 2007

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
esefko@dallasnews.com

For all you grouches who believe nothing the Mavericks do until the playoffs really matters, Monday night's delectable dose of November basketball was for you.

And if this is what the Southwest Division is going to be like for the next five-plus months, the regular season will be much more than just a preface to the playoffs.

The Mavericks overcame a manpower shortage and foul trouble, riding Jason Terry's masterful shooting night to a hard-earned 107-98 victory, handing the Houston Rockets their first loss of the season after three wins.

Terry had 31 points, but more impressively he had 16 of the Mavericks' last 37 points, taking up the slack left by the injured Devin Harris and foul problems for Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard. Terry also had three of his five assists in the fourth quarter.

It was the sort of game that makes a team forget about last season's early meeting between these teams, when the Rockets won by 31.

"This was a key win," Terry said. "They really put it to us in that November game last year. We are one up on them now, but ... they are a team to be reckoned with in this division."

Terry's seven points at the end of the third quarter put the Mavericks ahead, 77-75, but it wasn't until Howard (21 points) converted a three-point play and hit two free throws that the Mavericks moved ahead for good at 91-88.
The Dallas Mavericks held Yao Ming to 21 points and 11 rebounds in Monday's win.

Jerry Stackhouse, celebrating his 33rd birthday, hit a 3-pointer, and Nowitzki slopped in a triple with 2:55 left that made it 101-92.

"It was not really my game," Nowitzki said. "I never really found my rhythm, but the team was great and kept us in it. That 3-ball was obviously a little lucky with that bounce, but sometimes that's what you need in this league is a little luck."

And enough warriors to bail out a team when things aren't going well. The Mavericks are one of the deepest teams in the league for a reason. And with the ranks thinned, Terry knew he had work to do.

"Obviously with those guys out, I have to be more aggressive and assertive with taking my shots and looking for openings," he said. "We were getting turnovers, getting stops, and that allowed me to get out on the break and create some early offense."

It gave Avery Johnson reason to applaud his sixth man and his entire team.

"Jet's playing some pretty good basketball for us," Johnson said. "He had that look in his eyes, and we're very surprised when he misses. And he competed defensively, also."

That was part of the reason why Mike James – Houston's equivalent to Terry off the bench – was 4-of-13 from the field. Tracy McGrady also struggled to 12-of-31, although he finished with a game-best 35 points.

Yao Ming didn't miss many shots, but didn't take many, either, going 9-of-12.

There were gritty moments of play throughout. In the second quarter, the Mavericks had four tip-in tries and couldn't get any of them to fall. But their perseverance earned them applause from their coach, who wanted to see a better rebounding effort.

At the end of the third quarter, Terry lit up like one of those Christmas trees that's going up too early in the malls.

 

Feigen's article in the Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5276499.html

Nov. 6, 2007, 12:39AM
Rockets fail their first early season test
Mavs are able to execute late, pull away to win

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
DALLAS — New coach. New system. A bunch of new teammates.

Yet when it was time for the Rockets to truly measure themselves against a team with the elite status they covet in the only time of the game that really mattered, nothing changed.

The Rockets traded punches with the Mavericks down to the final five minutes on Monday. But with the outcome on the line, the Rockets broke down as the Mavericks surged to a 107-98 win at American Airlines Center and left with a taunting reminder of the distance to their destination.

So familiar was the inability to seize chances that Yao Ming described it with the most profane words in the recent Rockets lexicon: "Game 7."

"I think we're just not tough enough to win this game in the fourth quarter," Yao said. "You can see that. Turnovers (during) their roll. Didn't run back. Don't locate people. I think that's how we lose in Game 7."

Late in the game, the Rockets busted three consecutive defensive rotations and left Dirk Nowitzki wide open on a break. With consecutive Rockets turnovers and Tracy McGrady's miss, the Mavericks took command.

"We just have to be smart down there ... do a great job of executing," McGrady said. "I thought we did a really poor job on the offensive end executing, getting the ball in the right spots, turning the ball over."

McGrady had 35 points and eight assists to lead the Rockets while Yao added 21 points with 11 rebounds. But the Rockets' offense never seemed in sync with Yao taken out early by a hard double-team and his hesitancy to attack — and later by the inability to get him the ball.

While the Mavericks got 31 points off the bench from Jason Terry with Jerry Stackhouse adding 16, the bench that had been so instrumental to the Rockets' 3-0 start could not keep pace.

The Mavericks, meanwhile, went to 3-1 after an 0-4 start in 2006-07 that included a 41-point loss to the Rockets.

Turnovers costly
The Rockets came undone with five fourth-quarter turnovers and defensive breakdowns in the last 14 minutes.

"The way they scored and the way we turned it over were the two crucial things, I thought," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said.

"You can't afford to turn the ball over against a good team on the road, and you have to keep your concentration. We let Terry get off those three shots at the end of the third quarter. And we turned it over twice unnecessarily in the fourth quarter, and they opened it up."

With the Rockets up 88-87 with 6:15 left, the Mavericks took off on a 10-2 run to take over. And with the Rockets within 101-94 with 2:44 left, they made just one of their next six shots: a Yao jump hook in the lane.

"Best shot, best quick shot," Adelman said of what he wanted rather than the quick 3s the Rockets launched. "We need to attack the basket. If it's a two- or three-possession game, a 3 is not going to get you back in it; you just have to score. I thought we could have gone inside, we could have attacked the basket and (we could) try to get to the line and stop the clock. That's what you want to do. That's why I didn't take (Yao) out toward the end there."

Yao doesn't attack
The hook was one of only two shots Yao took in the fourth quarter. He made both. But from the start, the Mavericks took him from the offense by quickly double-teaming him to the point the Rockets were still looking elsewhere when the Mavericks no longer sent extra defensive help Yao's way.

"I think he's got to learn he's got to be aggressive and take it," Adelman said. "He's got to be a real force. And we've got to go to him if they're not going to double him.

"He can catch it and go right away (against double-teams). In the second half, they weren't coming on the run. That's when he has to be really aggressive. He was finding the right people at the start of the game. But as the game wears on and they're not coming at you, we have to go to him."

No-brainer plays
The Rockets made mistakes they had not made before. Adelman called them "lapses."

To the Rockets, still chasing the league's best, they were more of the same.

"We were right in the game," Adelman said. "I think it's a matter of our team learning what we have to do to beat good teams."

For all that is different, that much still has not changed.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com