Chron: Rockets take no chances with Jazz

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/rox/1777059

SALT LAKE CITY -- The leads seemed safe. But the Rockets have been teased so many times by the Jazz that they just weren't sure.

The Rockets played with the sting of 11 consecutive losses in Utah and the bitterness of the blown late lead a night before to the Jazz. No matter how great their lead, the Rockets would not allow themselves to consider it enough.

During a 106-76 start-to-finish rout of Utah on Wednesday, the Rockets kept pushing, almost desperate to avoid glancing back, until they had their most lopsided win ever in 142 games against the Jazz.

Before Wednesday, no Rockets player had ever won in Utah with the Rockets. Only Kelvin Cato (and the injured Glen Rice) had won with any team in the Delta Center. By the time the Rockets left the building, they had broken a maddening three-game losing streak by rewriting the series record book. The Rockets' largest previous win against the Jazz was by 29 points, and that was so long ago that Karl Malone was in the second month of his 18-year career.

"We lost in the very last seconds last night," said Yao Ming, making his first trip to the Delta Center. "Tonight, every second on the court we continued to play hard and try to push the lead. We've won a lot of games in the past when we've played well, but tonight was definitely the most complete game we've played, especially in terms in our energy level and our ability to maintain our poise."

Unlike on so many previous trips to Utah, the Rockets did not crumble when things went wrong. Few things did not go their way, but when they ran into the usual traps, they mimicked some of the Jazz's usual mental toughness and played through the familiar frustrations. They had their best shooting game on the road this season, never trailed and never let up defensively, holding the league's most accurate shooting team to 38 percent.

Steve Francis carried the Rockets through the first half, personally outscoring the Jazz 19-18 through 15 minutes and rolling up 25 first-half points with five assists. When Francis finally sat with the lead safe, he had 36 points and seven assists, with just two turnovers.

But unlike Tuesday, when Francis and Yao could not get enough help, the Rockets came from a variety of angles. Maurice Taylor made six of eight shots to score 13 points. Eddie Griffin outrebounded Malone 11-4. James Posey, who was 5-of-24 in his previous four games, made six of 10 shots for 13 points. Yao had 15 points, including an over-the-head flip through the grasp of Tony Massenburg.

"We kind of make it look easy when we play the right way, when we play our kind of basketball," Taylor said. "We didn't want a situation like last night, a close game, when experience might have overcame our athleticism.

"The main thing is not to lose your poise here. There's going to be times you're going to get a hard pick, you're going to get held. You just have to play through it. Today was the type of game we've been looking forward -- everybody has looked forward -- to us playing. We played like a young team with athleticism and quickness, but with maturity. We slowed the ball down when we needed to. We got it in to Yao to keep the pressure on them. Those were things we weren't doing in the losing streak."

The Rockets had set a rapid early pace, but they took off with the start of the second half. When the Rockets completed a 9-0 run late in the quarter with a Posey tip, they led 76-52 with two minutes left in the third quarter and with Jazz fans booing even though Greg Ostertag was not on the court.

The Rockets began the fourth quarter with an 81-59 lead with Malone and John Stockton on the bench. Naturally, the Jazz scored the first six points of the quarter.

Having seen this too many times before, Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich rushed Francis and Yao back ahead of schedule. Taylor immediately took a pass from Francis to a jump hook. But while Francis fumed over a call he did not get on a dunk attempt, Yao settled things down with a jump shot and his three-point play through Massenburg to push the lead back to 21.

But with another streak over, the Rockets quickly lost interest in the fine print details, preferring instead to enjoy learning how long games last.

"For the records, it looks good," Francis said. "But at this point in time, we're scratching. We're scratching to get victories by whatever way they come, by 30, by 10, by two. We need to win games. This is a good example of if we stay focused for 48 minutes what could happen."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/rox/1777064

Rockets Summary

Style points

To Rudy Tomjanovich, it's not what a team does that matters, but how faithfully -- and eventually, well -- it does it.

Tomjanovich has praised the Mavericks and Kings' unshakable determination to play their way this season. But perhaps no team stays with its style as consistently as the Jazz.

Because of that, Tomjanovich said, the Jazz can change players around Karl Malone and John Stockton as seamlessly as he once changed role players around Hakeem Olajuwon. It is easier,Tomjanovich said, to know how players will fit when a coach can be certain what they will be fitting into.

"They're the old pros," he said. "They're the masters. Stockton and Malone are fantastic. Now they have younger guys that paid their dues and couldn't be happier to be in this situation and are doing a great job of taking advantage of the opportunity. (Matt) Harpring and (Calbert) Cheaney are tremendous pieces of the puzzle.

"I'm not comparing those guys to CBA players, but believe me, when you have an identity ... with the old Rockets teams, I could take CBA guys and add them to a known identity. But you do have to give Harpring credit because he is much better than anybody could have known with his feel for the game and chemistry. That credit goes to him."

Language barrier

The Jazz passed out placards with the word "brick" written in English and Chinese to fans behind the baskets. The taunt, however, meant nothing to Rockets center Yao Ming. Yao's interpreter Colin Pine said the literal translation on the placards was "throw a brick" and that Yao had never heard the term used.

In one of the odder pregame requests of the season, Yao was asked to give his height, weight and shoe size. The reporter apparently knew the answers but seemed to think it would be fun to hear Yao say it.

"Couldn't you find that on the NBA Web site?" Yao said.

Rare back-to-back

The Rockets' back-to-back with the Jazz is unusual but not unprecedented. They have played the same team on consecutive nights only 10 times in franchise history but have never traveled farther than Dallas or San Antonio between games.

The last time the Rockets played a back-to-back with the same team, they split games against Dallas to end the 1993-94 season. They had never won the road portion of consecutive games against the same team until Wednesday.