[Chron] Rockets can't find much rhythm against Jazz

Hou Chronicle - Rockets can't find much rhythm against Jazz

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2920691

Rockets can't find much rhythm against Jazz

Team lagging behind Utah most of the game
By JONATHAN FEIGEN


Utah 90,
Houston 80
FINAL

SALT LAKE CITY - Smarter. Tougher. More determined. The Jazz were all the things the Rockets have failed to be.

Need more specifics? Quicker to loose balls. More disciplined. Better rebounding.

Every time Andrei Kirilenko dove for the ball, every time Jarron Collins beat Yao Ming to the glass, every time Carlos Boozer simply beat the Rockets down the court, the Rockets' greatest deficiency was obvious.

But if the Rockets still could not see where they have come up short regularly, if the their 90-80 loss to the Jazz on Friday night did not in itself make it clear enough, there was one last bit of evidence.

Trailing by as much as 18, coach Jeff Van Gundy found four guys at the end of the bench who if nothing else, would play with urgency.

Starters Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Maurice Taylor watched as actually trying as hard and playing with as much intensity as the other guys nearly turned the game around.

It was not enough. But as the Rockets said the same things they have often said after a loss, the leaders seemed to realize they were not only badly outplayed by the Jazz, they were outplayed by reserves Andre Barrett, Dikembe Mutombo, Scott Padgett and Bostjan Nachbar.

"The guys came in there and gave us a lot more energy," McGrady said after the Rockets fell to 6-8 for their worst start since the 1999-2000 season. "They scrambled around, making plays, knocking down shots, getting stops.

"There just was a lot more energy."

Van Gundy was not about to celebrate cutting a huge lead to five with three guys at the end of the bench scrambling around with Mutombo and Jim Jackson.

"They just outplayed us from the first quarter on," Van Gundy said. "They had their way with us.

"The answer isn't three or four guys playing with energy. The answer is everybody playing with energy so you don't dig yourself holes like that."

However, this was not an aberration. The Rockets have let leads slip because they lost their intensity.

They fell far behind in games because they began with a lack of intensity. On Friday, they skated by for awhile but eventually trailed by 18 because of a lack of intensity.

There might be other issues, but none loom as large.

Van Gundy has said roster or rotation changes would come if the mediocrity did not change. But when asked for the solution to another night of getting "outworked," he had no answers, or at least none he was willing to share.

"I don't know," Van Gundy said. "We'll have to wait and see what it means."

But no longer could the Rockets dismiss Van Gundy's critiques as merely his tendency toward grumpy, as he once suggested. Until late in the third quarter, when he went to his last resorts, the Rockets had demonstrated all of their Charmin tendencies.

If nothing else had indicated how willing the Rockets were to be whipped, they began the second half trailing by 10 as if they had spent halftime eating leftovers.


Flat in third quarter
On the Jazz's first two possessions of the second half, they grabbed an offensive rebound on a bounce, scored on a Boozer jumper, grabbed a loose ball as it rolled through the lane before Kirilenko, who led the Jazz with 21 points, nailed a 3 for a 15-point lead.

It took the Rockets 4 1/2 minutes of the half to get their first rebound.

Yao played 26 minutes and didn't get a defensive rebound, finishing with nine points and four rebounds.

Taylor did less, missing all seven of his shots and getting four rebounds.

But with a 17-point deficit late in the third quarter, the Rockets cut the deficit to 80-75 when Jackson drove to a dunk.


Damage had been done
While the Rockets turned things around by playing harder, they also started hitting 3-pointers.

However, once within five, they missed their final five 3-point shots. In the final 4 1/2 minutes, the Rockets' only baskets were a pair of uncontested Barrett layups.

But the problem was not missed shots late. The Rockets lost because of what did not do before then.

"They were more aggressive getting rebounds, going after loose balls," said Jackson, who led the Rockets with 18 points and added six rebounds, six assists and four steals. "It's tough enough to win here as it is.

"Oh yeah, (it's frustrating). It's 14 games into the season. Those are more effort plays. You see the ball go up and we're not reacting to it. Other times, when balls are just laying there and they go dive for it, they have more energy."

But while the Jazz hit the floor and the boards, Van Gundy's point seemed to finally be made for him. It was that obvious.

"We're just getting outworked, like tonight," Van Gundy said. "It's pretty simple. It's not complicated."

jonathan feigen@chron.com


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Rockets Summary
In praise of Brown
The news this week might not make The Today Show, the way last week's fight scenes did, but the sudden retirement of Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown was considered stunning by league standards.

Brown retired for unspecified health reasons, saying he could not devote his usual intensity to the job.

"Whenever you say 'health related,' you feel very, very badly that someone didn't get a chance to leave under their own set of circumstances," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "Let's hope it's nothing major and he can recover quickly.

"He did a great job there. He and Jerry West. It's harder than most people think to change around the culture of losing that they had there. That's hard to do. He did a great job. I hope he recovers quickly."

Brown was last season's NBA Coach of the Year for taking a team that had never had a winning season to 50 wins. But Van Gundy said coaches appreciated more than the record.

"Coaches don't look at records as much as how people play," Van Gundy said.


Ward back, then out again
Guard Charlie Ward, who missed Tuesday's game in Sacramento, made a brief return to the starting lineup on Friday.

Ward played only 13 minutes before he had to leave the game because of his sore right knee. He aggravated the injury diving for a loose ball midway through the first quarter and will undergo an MRI today.

Ward was struggling with his shot in the games before his break. He had made three of 20 shots in his past four games and is shooting 30.7 percent this season.


Heightened alert
For their first home game since the brawl in Detroit, the Rockets will beef up security behind the team benches at Toyota Center, team vice president David Carlock said.

No other changes have been planned. Alcohol sales had already been cut off before the start of the fourth quarter.


Press row view
Jeff Van Gundy said if things don't change quickly, changes to the roster or rotation are coming.

While losses like Friday's might make a major overhaul tempting, here's a start. Play Andre Barrett and whoever else plays the hardest. A team in desperate need of quickness and energy might have found some in Barrett. He's far from a cure-all, but he's quick and energetic and the Rockets need that, along with playing time from anyone else willing to keep up.


Inside the numbers
Jim Jackson led the Rockets in points, rebounds, assists and steals. ... Tracy McGrady had 17 points, but just five when the Jazz double-teamed him and he could make just two of seven shots. ... The Jazz had 12 fast-break points in the game, but none in the fourth quarter when the Rockets more reliably got back defensively. ... Mehmet Okur's 20 points were a season high. ... The Rockets scored 26 first-quarter points, draining four of five 3-pointers.


Did you know?
A year ago to the day, the Rockets also played their 14th game of the season in Utah. They lost thent too, but fell only to 9-5.

-- JONATHAN FEIGEN