[chron.com] Given time, Alston will bag victories

the highlighted part made me laugh..

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Given time, Alston will bag victories

On the surface — or perhaps more precisely, beneath the surface — Rockets point guard Rafer Alston has had more things going on
between the ears than Steve Francis ever did.

Alston's has been a more volatile career, colored with alternate strokes of brilliance and boneheadedness, like walking out on a Toronto Raptors practice and pouting at the end of the bench when things didn't go his way.

His has been a career less predictable, tinged with notorious feuds with coaches George Karl at Milwaukee and Sam Mitchell at Toronto and illuminating moments like we saw at Toyota Center on Tuesday.

There were the Rockets' once and future point guards, face to face.

Both flashed their street-credible games, which can make awestruck high school ballers buy their shoes and NBA coaches stomp in theirs.


Round one to Francis
Francis won this one, in large part because this Rockets were incomplete — Tracy McGrady wasn't on the bench, and Alston was not the player the Rockets hope he will become.

Will he ever be?

A dismal 1-2 opening homestand ended with Tuesday's 76-74 loss to Francis' Orlando Magic. And as the Rockets embark on the year's toughest trip, the lingering impression is how unim-
pressive the three big offseason acquisitions have been.

Stromile Swift has a long, long way to go on the defensive end of the floor and in other ways, large and small. Derek Anderson has been fine — nothing less, nothing more.

And then there's Alston, who was known as "Skip To My Lou" on the blacktops and, in a parting shot from Toronto when traded to the Rockets for Mike James, was described by one NBA executive as "the next Terrell Owens."


It's just one night
When Alston missed both a wide-open 3-pointer that would have given the Rockets a late lead and then a driving layup late in Tuesday's rim-clanging night, you figured Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy had come full circle. The live-wire guard he once had, the Franchise, had been replaced by Skip To My Lou.

But let's not skip to conclusions on Alston just yet. For all the problems this team must overcome to even begin putting a scare into mediocrity late in games, they will survive nights like this one and become the team most expected because of the point guard as much as T-Mac and Yao Ming.

"I'd be shocked if it isn't a great fit," Van Gundy said. "There were situations where he might have handled them a little better, but he's a genuine guy. He's liked by teammates, he'll pass the ball, and he'll play defense."

Feel free to wonder if Swift will ever fulfill the lofty expectations he has worn like a pre-dress-code throwback jersey. Go ahead and be lukewarm on Anderson until further notice.

But Alston will be what Francis never was. He'll be the right fit.

It's all coming at Alston so fast right now. Everything Van Gundy needs from his point guard — unselfish play, smart decision-making, under-
standing teammates' games as much as his own — is a blur.

Francis won Tuesday night's game for the Magic almost by himself. It was like so many nights we knew before, with Francis shooting almost twice as many shots (26) as anyone else in the gym, finishing with a game-high 27 points, stacking up the minutes (42) and screaming at the rafters after big buckets.

"Credit Steve," Van Gundy said.

Of course. The Franchise took over. But over the course of a season, more nights like this one will go the other way for Francis. In fact, counting Tuesday night, the Magic now have one victory.

Alston was anything but Skip To My Lou. He finished with eight points, nine assists and seven rebounds and remained in control, smart, and trying to grasp it all without flubbing a key possession.

More nights like this one will end the way Van Gundy envisioned they would when he risked trading the cool professional, James, for the former street baller with a past.

More nights like this one, especially when McGrady is back on the floor, will end with all those preconceived notions about Alston's being a street player going the way of Francis. Out the door.

"Am I going to say he's not going to lose it at some point? No," Van Gundy said. "But (I will), too. Join the crowd.

"Not to absolve anything that happened last year, but I'm sure he learned from those situations. I was not scared off at all by that. I like his genuineness. There's no fraud to him. When he acts wacky, he's a genuine wacko. I'll take genuine over a fraud any day of the week."

This one didn't end the way it should have or could have, and there's a long way to go. There are lots of worries. The point guard isn't one of them.