http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/1611407 Oct. 9, 2002, 10:36PM Rockets' defense good for 2 periods By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle AUSTIN -- For all the talk about the Rockets' slick, new offense -- and the Rockets do enjoy talking about it -- offense was not the point. They finally collected new game tape to dissect. Lots of good, enough bad and almost all of it having nothing to do with offense. The Rockets seemed to show with their first preseason game that they might be able to defend. The Memphis Grizzlies have been a poor offensive team, but they were not against the Rockets last season. But Tuesday in Memphis, for one impressive half, the Rockets strangled the Grizzlies' offense. Then they played another half. "Yesterday, our first-half defense was good," Rockets guard Cuttino Mobley said. "We kind of slacked off in the second when we had those spells. Of course, everybody else is going to talk about our offense, our new offense. But as long as we focus on our defense, we'll be OK. "We contested shots and we got back against a good fast-breaking team," Mobley said. "But it's only the first game so we don't want to get too hyped about it. Our main focus just has to be playing defense." In a sense, the Rockets took just the right first steps -- and missteps. They played well enough defensively to gain a sense of what they can do. The Grizzlies made just 13 of 39 shots (33 percent) in the first half. Last season, opposing teams made 46.4 percent of their shots against the Rockets, ranking the Rockets next-to-last in the NBA in opponents' field-goal percentage. (Only the Chicago Bulls were worse.) "It's a big improvement from last year," Rockets forward Kenny Thomas said. "We just started the season. We played well in the first half, but we have to keep that up." In the second half, the Grizzlies made 20 of 40 shots, often beating the Rockets down the court. Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said some of the second-half problems were caused by "human nature" when the lead reached 24 points during a 106-98 victory. "The defense was very good in the first half, very good," Tomjanovich said. "The second half, we were feeling our oats because we were up. Human nature took over. We took ill-advised shots, which lead to transition points. But overall, it was very positive. Our guys were very good at looking at the negatives. Everybody wants to improve. "(Defense) is No. 1. That has to be the focus. That's the first thing we address." But to address it, it helped to have fresh examples of how it should be done, and reasons to talk about it. "We have got to look at it both ways," Rockets guard Steve Francis said. "Sometimes you have to take the positives. We have a young team and a lot of new guys. But we have to take a good look at the negatives. We didn't defend that well in the second half. "Defense is going to be the key whether we win or lose." The constant, however, might have been exclamation-point defensive moments provided by Eddie Griffin. Griffin blocked three shots, including blocks of two attempted dunks when he met Michael Dickerson high above the rim in the first half, and Drew Gooden in the second half. "It's a special, special talent to have the quickness and the timing to do that kind of stuff," Tomjanovich said. "There's only a handful of guys in the league that could do that stuff. Everybody got into it." Griffin led the Rockets with 134 blocked shots last year. But he had to admit that Tuesday's were extraordinary. "They were probably some of my best ones because two were on dunks," he said. "That gets everybody up. "It showed what we can do. But we didn't have the killer instinct to put them away. We have to get that to do it for a whole game. But it's a start."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/1611413 Oct. 9, 2002, 10:39PM -Rockets summary- Off and running The Rockets showed signs in Tuesday's preseason opener of running more effectively than last season with 12 fast-break points and fewer botched breaks. But that still represents a small step in a faster direction, especially considering the Memphis Grizzlies missed 46 shots. "We're going to try to be a running team," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "I would say we did OK. We had their percentage down low so there were a lot of misses, but I wish we had more of those opportunities." Opening it up The Rockets broke out only a small segment of their "five-man" offense Tuesday in part because it worked too well to do much more. With so many open shots in the first half when running the offense, the Rockets did not have to move on to the next options in the offense. There was one example of a reaction to the defense when Steve Francis cut down the lane to take a pass near the rim. "Our cuts, those are the kinds of things we're looking for," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "We haven't put in all the things -- one time you're cutting left, one time you're cutting right, one time you're setting a back pick, one time you're setting a double. When we get to that, that's when it's really going to be fun. "We're putting in new sets. A lot of things look good. There is going to have to be tweaks with personnel, putting guys in different positions. It's going to take time." Rice ready to go Rockets forward Glen Rice returned to practice without restrictions Wednesday and has been cleared to participate in every practice and next Tuesday's game against the San Antonio Spurs unless problems arise again. Rice was held out of Tuesday's game in Memphis with a sore knee. Rockets forward Maurice Taylor, however, is not scheduled to return to workouts until Friday. Taylor is taking anti-inflammatory medication to treat swelling in his ankle. Taylor sprained the ankle when he stepped on the back of teammate Kenny Thomas' foot in a practice last week. Guard Moochie Norris also was held out of Tuesday's game with sore feet, but he returned to practice Wednesday. Meeting with refs The Rockets went through the annual preseason meeting with game officials before Tuesday's game, with the primary emphasis on some of last season's rule changes and this season's use of instant replay on last-second shots. The replay will only be used to determine if late shots came in time and, in such cases, if shooters stepped on the out-of-bounds or 3-point line while shooting. Anything else noticed while viewing replays will not be considered. "We talked about a whole bunch of things -- the incidental contact, (defensive) three-second call, moving picks, traveling and the use of instant replay," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. But Tomjanovich was even more encouraged by a meeting with all the league's coaches, officials and director of officials Ed Rush. "We spent dinner together and the next morning and afternoon on the floor," Tomjanovich said. "They're really trying to have a good close relationship with coaches and players. They're doing a lot of work. ... "They're really the most scrutinized group of officials in all of sports. They want to make it efficient. But it's an impossible job. I just had a real good feeling about Ed Rush and their intention to try keep the game moving in the right direction." -- JONATHAN FEIGEN
