LINK Dec. 28, 2005, 12:22AM Call puts Rockets in a bind No, not a ref's decision — it was word that T-Mac's fiancée was in labor By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Of all the medical conditions that have taken away the Rockets' offense, pregnancy seemed unlikely to stop them. But now they can add childbirth to the list. Tracy McGrady's fiancée, Clerenda Harris, went into labor Tuesday, and McGrady and all the scoring the Rockets could not afford to lose went to a hospital with her. Without McGrady and five injured players, the Rockets offense collapsed in the second half Tuesday, and the Utah Jazz came from behind to cruise to a 82-74 win before a Toyota Center sellout of 18,088. McGrady arrived in time to be there when Harris gave birth to a son, Laymen Lamar, and rejoined the team in time for its flight to Oklahoma City to play the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets tonight. And the Rockets fell to 0-10 in games they finish without McGrady. "We realized Tracy was gone," Dikembe Mutombo said. "Keith (Jones, the Rockets' trainer) came in and said his lady is in labor. I thought, 'There we go again.' " The Rockets might have never looked more short-handed than they did in Tuesday's second half. Unlike their surrender last week in Denver, they defended, worked and gave themselves a chance. Besides McGrady and Juwan Howard, who has averaged 19.3 points per game since center Yao Ming went out for toe surgery, the Rockets made 14 of 29 shots (25.5 percent). Without McGrady, the Rockets needed a late flurry to pull their shooting in the second half to 28.6 percent. "What a great player he is, and it has to be really tough on Jeff (Van Gundy)," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "You have to wonder what will happen next. As coaches, we have to adjust all the time, and this one was probably a new one for Jeff." Sloan's strategy With Sloan choosing not to send the usual swarms of help defense to surround him, McGrady made six of 14 shots in the first half and scored 21 points in 20 minutes. The Rockets led by as much as nine in the first half and by five at halftime when McGrady left. The Rockets then made six of their next 33 shots, trailing by as much as nine at 72-63 before their late run. "We didn't lose because he wasn't there," Van Gundy said. "We lost because we were inept offensively." Desperate to find any offensive help, Van Gundy called on every player in uniform. But Stromile Swift, back to coming off the bench with Mutombo starting, made just two of 10 shots. Rookies Luther Head, who was back in the starting lineup, and Stephen Graham combined to go 4-for-18. "We felt like we were in control of the game and we just didn't have the scoring in the second half," Swift said. "We didn't make shots. I think the intensity was there." The Rockets were just 5-of-20 in the third quarter, going more than five minutes into the second half before Head got a reverse to fall. Remarkably, that basket kept the Rockets within one. They even managed to stick within a point heading into the fourth quarter. The Jazz did not shoot much better, making just 34.2 percent of their attempts. Andrei Kirilenko was 2-of-11. Eventually, the Rockets would have had to find scoring to stay in the game. They never did. Bad report card "You know, this hasn't been a good semester," Mutombo said. "Hopefully things will turn around after the new year. We've been six games under .500 before. But we have to see what happens to us. "We lost so many guys. Only thing left is to go out and leave everything out there and see what the results will be. Are we becoming a lottery team? That is a thing that hasn't crossed my mind. I think we're going to bounce back." For now, however, that seems like just a birthday wish. jonathan.feigen@chron.com
I missed the game and I must say, I was absolutely terrified when I saw the headline being something to the effect of, "Rockets fall to Jazz after McGrady's Departure". For a second there I thought the world was coming to an end.
Well, I hate to say "I told you so", but I NEVER supported the trade of Mike James for Alston. I supported Alston once he was here (hoping for the best), but I just didn't understand why we gave up Mike James for a scrub. He's not talent, even when he's not hurt. At least James could have helped with the scoring, especially with Yao out (and when TMac was out).
"We didn't lose because he wasn't there," Van Gundy said. "We lost because we were inept offensively." No, you lost because TMac wasn't there. Dumbass.
What do you expect him to say? Yeah, go ahead and kill all the morale on the team by saying we didn't have any chance at all because we didn't have T-Mac
The Rockets played SO bad in the second half. The Jazz weren't playing that well either, they just got 20 or so attempts every time down the court because the Rockets were so inept at getting a board. We needed to use what they were using to patch up the floors at the TC, on the team to shore up their D. (BTW - is that normal that there were so many cracks in the floor of such a new building?) That, along with being surounded by people who just had tickets to watch their kids dance at the half and could care less about the game made last night one of the worst games I've attended. Turn it around tonight and beat those Hornets!
The Rockets were thinking exactly what Deke thought when he heard Tmac was gone for the 2nd half because they know they all shoot for piss poor percentage when Tmac isn't creating shots for them on offense by drawing the defenders. JVG shouldn't say things which aren't completely true.
I'm not supporting JVG in this issue--quite frankly, I'm really frustrated with him right now--but he shouldn't have to be in a position like this anyway. There is NO REASON why the Rockets should be 0-10 without TMac (remember, most of those games were with Yao IN the lineup). We need some change on the roster. I'm not a fairweather fan, and I'm not a short patience kind of guy. I just never thought this team would be a championship caliber team. I hope they prove me wrong. But when a team loses their best player, that should not put the team in shambles. As we can see here, it's extremely risky (if that person goes down), but it also means that the team can't really play like a team. They shouldn't be 100% dependent on TMac (or Yao, but we know better than to put all our money on Yao ).
This team desperatley needs to find a 3rd scorer somewhere. Whether it is this offseason with the midlevel or by a trade or something, they need one bad.
well what did you expect you dont know how this team could be with rafer if he wasnt injured. Mike had already stated numerous times that he would jump ship after this season to land his payday. The rockets would have lost him for nothing, at least this way they were able to secure a talented pg for the next few years to compliment yao and t-mac. the only problem is other than the first game of the season the three of them have yet to play a game together. and its hard to say alston is not a talent when he has one of the best assist/to ratio. its easy to come out and say I told you so, but where will you be when you actually can see the impact of having a pg on the floor will do? honestly i think we could have won a few of those games when tracy was out if alston was there. come back and say that when he is healthy and playing then i'll take your opinion with some credibility
But, according to JVG, we have all professional players and they shouldn't be so inept on offense. He's sticking to his guns. What are those...BB guns? We need our six shooters back.
Yea...thanks...mister know-it-all. At least I wouldn't pretend that not having my main guy on the floor didn't affect the outcome of the game. The Rockets players aren't pretending they didn't know that. It's one thing to motivate your players. It's another thing to flat out lie to motivate your players.
Ok so when your team is down, as a coach, do you add to that? No, a great coach tries to inspire his team and keep their morale and self esteem up. That's one of the most important jobs of a coach. Not only that. Once the coach starts making excuses for losing, he shows no belief and faith in his team. All of these guys have said only positive things about Van Gundy. They love him as a coach and what he does for them. One of the biggest reasons they play hard is because of him. Why play hard when your coach doesn't have faith in you?
And no its not a flat out lie As long as you have 5 players on the court you have a chance. Whether that group is inspired and mentally tough enough to win is another thing. But you still have a chance You don't just give up. It's a freaking sport for a reason. These guys love to compete. Especially these guys that would be sitting at the end of the bench if it wasn't for all these injuries. The limited times they get to play and you're already telling them to give up because they can't win without their superstar Once again, you would make a crappy coach
By telling the team that losing Tmac didn't affect the outcome of the game? I would find other ways to motivate my team besides lying to them. If he would have said "we can still win without tmac...you just need to do this...this...and this"...well okay then. But, that's not what he said.
Your totally way off base there, mister. What your saying and what I'm saying are two different things.
He did say we have to do certain things... "we were inept offensively" - TRANSLATION: Make shots and we could've won
Yea...whatever...maybe I read into it a bit too much. I don't care what you think of me as a coach, anyway. That's irrelevant.
I am tired of JVG's "no excuse" cliche. "We didn't lose because he wasn't there. We lost because we were inept offensively." Yeah right. Might as well say, "We lost because they score more points than us." Motivating players to play hard in the midst of adversity is one thing. But how hard do you have to try to make open jump shots? Making shots isn't about effort. It's about rhythm. You lose rhythm when your offense is designed to create shots from your star player and that player is not there. And now the coach is denying that the absence of his star player has NOTHING to do with their inept offense.
