http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1858871 Franchise-low 66 points spell embarrassing loss By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle So much for keeping company with playoff teams. Membership in the club the Rockets joined Tuesday at Compaq Center was considerably less auspicious. Of all the games that all the Rockets teams have ever played, never has a Rockets team been more pathetic offensively. From the 1977-78 Rockets who won 28 games to the 1982-83 Rockets who won just 14, through 2,916 games in two cities over most of 36 seasons, this game stood below everything that preceded it as the worst offensive game the Rockets have played. With an 81-66 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, the Rockets matched their fewest points ever in a game. By making just 26 of 88 shots (29.5 percent), they matched their worst shooting game, a record they had set this season. Their 25 points were the fewest they have ever scored in the second half. With Phoenix winning by 20 points in Denver, the Rockets' pursuit of a playoff spot produced a performance that even they found sickening. "I guess bad shooting is contagious," Yao Ming said. "Tonight, it was like SARS." Before this season, the Rockets had made less than 30 percent of their shots in a game just once, last season against Sacramento. They have done it twice this season. But unlike their 99-83 loss to the New York Knicks in December, and especially the loss to the Kings during last season's march to the lottery, this game meant something. The loss dropped the Rockets to 1 1/2 games behind the Suns with four to play, beginning tonight in Utah. As if by habit, the Rockets trotted out the usual explanations. "Sometimes, I think we got a little selfish as a team," Kelvin Cato said after the Rockets collected just nine assists. "Our energy level was dead from the beginning," Cuttino Mobley said. "It was like it was raining outside or snowing outside for the past 10 days. That's what it felt like. It seemed like it was dead out there. It was very disappointing. "You can't motivate someone else. You can only worry about yourself. When that energy level isn't high for you to motivate yourself ... as a team, we weren't as hyper as we should have been." But more than anything, Cato, Mobley and everyone else who clanged a shot said it was just one of those nights that nothing would fall. Unlike the misfiring night against the Knicks, when the Rockets ran themselves into the teeth of the Knicks' defense and took tough shots, the Rockets spent the second half Tuesday taking and missing every variety of normally high-percentage shots. The Rockets did their familiar dribble-to-death act in the first half. But in the second half, they never got a chance because they so easily found open looks. "We missed 14 layups, missed opportunities, open looks, we just could not put the ball in the basket," acting Rockets coach Larry Smith said. Yao missed hooks, putbacks and jumpers until he went 2-of-13. Steve Francis missed open jumpers and runners in the lane. Mobley took six 3-pointers, most wide-open, and missed six 3-pointers. For all the theories that bounced around to explain the Rockets' offensive misadventures, Francis would accept none of them. "Right now is definitely not the time you want to miss shots," he said. "If somebody wants to nitpick and try to make it seem like it was more than missed shots, they can kiss my (butt), straight up. We missed shots. That's all I can say. It was bad." Actually "bad" was as good as it got. The ball so rarely found the net, that in a span of 20:48 from late in the first quarter to more than three minutes into the fourth, the Rockets had four field goals. But after that long drought, the Blazers, who were often more clueless if not as inept offensively than the Rockets, only could build their lead to 12 points. Still, that lead matched the Rockets' offensive output of the previous 20 minutes. "One person's shooting bad and then another person misses a layup -- it's like a disease after a while," Mobley said. "If everybody was hot on the team and one person misses a layup, it's cool. But nobody got hot. "I just had to laugh at a couple of them. I know one person shoots bad. But a whole bunch of us missed shots we normally make. I mean, it's shots we all take all the time. Whatever you want to call it, the `Big 3' (top three scorers Yao, Francis and Mobley) went 10 for 90, I think (actually, 10 of 45). "That's not the way you want to play in April." Or any other time in franchise history.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1858963 Yao has no answers for loss to Blazers The normally affable Yao Ming slumped back in his seat. From the outset, it was clear he was in no mood to answer questions following the Rockets' 81-66 loss to Portland before a scant crowd that was reported to be 10,900 at Compaq Center. Perhaps Yao wasn't prepared to deal with questions because he had no answers. After all, the Rockets defended well, got good shots, dominated the offensive boards (23-11) and squeezed off 16 more shots than did the Blazers. Yet they lost. And lost big. When asked why the Rockets could have so many positives and still wind up with such a huge negative, Yao could only shrug and beg for enlightenment. "I don't know why," he said. "Help me find an excuse." Well, having the Rockets' four main offensive weapons -- Yao (2-for-13), Steve Francis (5-for-20), Cuttino Mobley (3-of-12) and Maurice Taylor (3-of-11) shoot a combined 13-of-56 would be a good place to start. With those four as the main culprits, the Rockets shot a franchise record-tying low 29.5 percent from the floor (26-of-88) on Tuesday night. "Our big four shot kind of bad tonight," said backup center Kelvin Cato, who missed all three of his shots in 17 minutes. "Poz (James Posey) came in and did a great job (15 points on 6-of-12 shooting), but we rely on Mo, Yao, Steve and Cat to score baskets, and tonight they just weren't falling. "That's just basketball." The performance was baffling considering the Rockets are scrambling for the final playoff spot in the West, but especially puzzling was their inability to take advantage of their edge on the offensive glass. Despite snatching half their 46 boards on the offensive end, the Rockets managed to squeeze only 12 second-chance points out of those boards. "It's hard to say why you have nights like this," Taylor said. "We just couldn't get the ball in the hole. And it wasn't only inside, but it was outside, too. Nobody could score tonight." Yao looked especially out of sync, finishing with only six points and hitting his only field goals in the first quarter. Yao, who picked off 12 rebounds, missed seven shots within eight feet of the basket, including a pair of layups, and twice had shots blocked. "Other than two or three times I felt satisfied," Yao said of the looks he got against the Portland defense. "I thought my shots were going in." Not this night. Credit for the defensive effort goes to Portland's Dale Davis, a power forward masquerading as a center in the Blazers' scheme. Saddled with a 7-inch height disadvantage, the burly Davis put his body on Yao, pushing the rookie away from the basket. "I wanted to make it as tough as possible on him," Davis said. "I wanted to be very aggressive, push him off the block and make him take tough shots. He can really hurt you if you don't play him tough like that."
