Rockets cross bridge to real season It's time to get serious about preparing to play By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2851911 BEIJING - The Rockets stopped at the Gin Shui Bridge in Tiananmen Square on Friday for a team picture. But the smiles they could not suppress the day before on the Great Wall of China were gone. Again and again, players speaking before Friday's last practice and before today's game against the Sacramento Kings in Capital Indoor Stadium alluded to the season's start in just two weeks. Coach Jeff Van Gundy had established two goals for the trip: to have fun and get a lot done. Success on the first part had been achieved. The second was to be determined, with the approach of the season bearing down unmistakably. "We need to achieve something every day," Van Gundy said. "We wasted the day before the Miami game (first exhibition). We missed a practice because of a bag screw-up (upon arriving in Shanghai), a bad practice, a bad shootaround and a bad game. So we've wasted a lot of time. "We have not played (with urgency) that way. Our first two preseason games have been very, very poor. "I think they can see it when they watch film." With that in mind, the Rockets said they were approaching the second China game with a determination to improve, citing work to be done on things as general as cohesiveness and as specific as the experiment of playing Tracy McGrady at point guard. "The things we have been doing have been a lot of fun, but it's two weeks before we play our first regular-season game," McGrady said. "We have to get in our minds it's time. Although we are in China, we have to prepare ourselves and play as if it were the regular season. Right now, we're not where we want to be, not even close. We need to get better. "Playing the point to me is a different challenge. But he's just trying out different things to see what works. Obviously, I'm capable of playing different positions, so Coach wanted to try me at point guard. But we just have to keep working so we can jell together, get where I want to be and get back to where I play the way I'm capable of playing. Right now, my timing is off. I don't know if it's because we're in China. But I have to get it back." As they had on their day off at the Great Wall, the Rockets as a whole felt the same way. "We know why we came here: It was to play the games and get better," forward Bostjan Nachbar said. "We didn't just come here to see where Yao (Ming) is coming from and to see the Great Wall. It was nice, but we have to play basketball and get better as a team. We're not happy. We have a lot of work to do, and we don't have a lot of time." jonathan.feigen@chron.com
