Chron: Experience isn't paying off for Rockets

Wow, didn't see this posted anywhere....

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3461341

Rockets don't act their age
Experience isn't paying off in winning effort
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

MINNEAPOLIS - The Rockets saw the warning signs everywhere. That's what torments them as they stagger through the season's first few weeks. They saw a bad start coming.

"We care, but we're not doing the things that make the difference," Rockets guard David Wesley said. "It's almost like everybody wants to win a championship, but not everybody wants to be intense.

"Everybody wants to win, but that doesn't mean when they're tired, they're still making good decisions, giving that extra effort, diving on the floor. That's where we are."

The Rockets cited their 6-11 start last season as a warning that they had to be ready to leap from the blocks in 2005. Yet they are 2-4 this season, rarely showing consistent energy or passion.

They looked at their disastrous end to last season as a reminder of how far they had to go. Yet they have broken down in the fourth quarters of three of their losses in what Jeff Van Gundy called "Rockets Gone Wild" — a lack of discipline, just as they had in the playoff series against the Mavericks last spring.

The Rockets even cited the Minnesota Timberwolves, whom they face tonight at Target Center, as an example of how fragile success can be. They noted the Wolves' fall from the Western Conference Finals to the lottery.

And even with that warning, the Rockets said they fell into the trap of assuming they can win 50 games

"The biggest thing is the big assumption (that) because our core is back and we added some good players that things are going to happen," guard Jon Barry said. "That's just not the way it works. I think we always assumed that because we have a nice-looking team on paper things were going to happen. We haven't stepped up and tried to make that happen yet in a proper manner."

The Rockets would seem to be old enough to know better. Only the Spurs and the Rockets are an average of more than 30 years old. No team has more years in the NBA than the Rockets, whose players average 7 1/2 years in the league.

Yet Van Gundy worried that the Rockets have put in so many years that they have become bored with the process of playing basketball and that the grind of flights and road trips, practices and shootarounds has become routine.

Where's the switch?

"I think we're all assuming the light's going to turn on," Barry said. "We were one of the hottest teams in the league last year after Christmas. But it's not going to happen unless you work through it and do the little things to make it happen."

They started their first two games of the season with little enthusiasm. Playing the second half of a back-to-back in Boston on Sunday — the first of three two-day sets in less than two weeks — the Rockets were at half-speed from start to finish.

"We move at glacial speed," Van Gundy said. "We need to be on it. When I watch us play, I have to keep hitting the remote to see that it's not in slow motion."

Slower than most teams, the Rockets have needed to move at their version of full speed. They haven't.

Generally unable to consistently create offense off the dribble — other than Tracy McGrady, who can create offense off the trainer's table — the Rockets are a collection of usually reliable shooters who simply need to hit outside shots.

But they have misfired, with no Rockets guard making better than 40 percent of his shots.

Most of all, as the league's most experienced team, the Rockets have needed discipline, especially late in games. But they've been wildly unreliable.

Go harder, smarter

"Our team needs to play a harder, smarter game," Van Gundy said. "Right now, we're two possessions pretty good, three possessions pretty bad, two possessions pretty good. Every team in this league and every player has some good moments, but we're not even close to being strong enough to outlast our opponents.

"We're slow laterally. We have a hard time guarding pick-and-rolls. We don't fight very hard for the ball on the boards, and we're an erratic ball-handling team that doesn't get a lot of penetration other than through McGrady."

The Rockets have weaknesses like any other team in the league, Van Gundy said.

"The biggest thing is to cover up for those weaknesses through improved technique and intensity and intelligence," he said. "We've had sporadic technique, intensity and intelligence."

Or as Van Gundy often says, they are what their record says they are.

"If you're 2-4, you certainly don't have an identity you like," Barry said. "We're very sporadic. We play in spurts very well but don't play very smart. Something is working, and we'll go away from it. Careless decision-making. Lack of game-plan execution."

The Rockets have been saying such things since the preseason, when they seemed to see warnings for the future. But two weeks into the regular season, those signs appear to have been alarms over what was already going wrong.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com


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ROCKETS SUMMARY

Head's up

When Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy listed his playing rotation before the season, it did not include rookie guard Luther Head. Since then, however, Head has been one of the first players off the bench, even if Van Gundy was not ready to rave about Head's performance.

Asked how Head is playing, Van Gundy said, "He's playing fair. But he's played better than some of the other guys at times.

"It's not about individual (play) either. He's helping our team play better. He's worked hard defensively, and he's made some shots. Defensively, he gives us a little bit more lateral quickness and also a guy who penetrates. You get what you deserve in this league and you get what you earn. That could be good or bad. I think Luther is earning what he's getting."

Though Head does give the Rockets quickness in the backcourt they often lack, especially at shooting guard, Van Gundy said the rookie does share some of the problems that have plagued the Rockets as a whole.

"It's nothing he's lacking (defensively)," Van Gundy said. "He's not lacking anything other than eliminating preventable mistakes, that's everybody on our team. You're going to make mistakes, but you shouldn't make mistakes that are preventable — wrong stance, wrong coverage."

Mr. Comeback

The Rockets might have desperately missed Tracy McGrady when he was out, but at least statistically, they might be better if he skipped every other game.

The Rockets have never lost a game in which McGrady comes back after missing games, going 4-0 in his return peformances. In those games, McGrady has averaged 29 points, six rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.75 steals.

McGrady missed two games with a right hip strain early last season. The Rockets defeated the New Jersey Nets 80-69 when he came back, with McGrady scoring 14 points with four steals.

He missed a game to attend to family business last January. The Rockets defeated the New Orleans Hornets 82-77 the next game. McGrady had 33 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

He missed last season's final regular-season game with back spasms and then had 34 points, five rebounds and six assists in the Rockets' 98-86 Game 1 playoff series win in Dallas.

After missing three games last week because of a back strain, he had 35 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots in the Rockets' 99-91 win in New Jersey on Saturday.

JONATHAN FEIGEN