Yao comes up short in crunch time as Rockets fall to Knicks By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle NEW YORK -- The Garden was buzzing again. The electricity, the tension were back. There was a game to be won, but that was not enough in itself to turn on the heat again. The Knicks had rallied back against the Rockets to take the slimmest of late leads when the occasion demanded Yao Ming take over a place Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson called "center stage of the NBA." This was why the people that can put themselves in the front row for any game chose this one. With the game on the line, the Rockets would give their celebrated center-of-attention rookie the ball and their fate. There was a spin and a slam and a shout. But twice, Yao lost the ball. The Knicks scored nine unanswered points and rallied down the stretch for a 102-95 win before 19,763 in a sold-out Madison Square Garden. "At the end of the game, if it weren't for my turnovers, the results would have been different," Yao said. "I was very excited and honored to have this kind of opportunity. I had the chance to win the game, but I didn't come through. It had nothing to do with my being tired. It was my turnovers." There were other things the Rockets blamed for their loss. There were defensive mistakes at the end, turnovers throughout. When the Knicks adjusted their defense to stop Cuttino Mobley who had 18 points in the first 16 minutes but seven the rest of the night -- the Rockets did not find another shooter left open. They went through one stretch with five consecutive missed layups when the Knicks rallied back from a 14-point first-half deficit. But without double teams, other than defenders that snaked hands in at the ball as they charged by, Yao would get a chance to win or lose a game. There had been other games the Rockets would go to Yao down the stretch of close games. But then, they relied on his feel and deft passing touch, or his ability to finish a play a teammate started. A night after the Celtics mobbed him and held Yao to just two attempts, Yao was 9-of-15 for 24 points. "It's like the difference between driving a truck one day and a small, compact car the next," he said. But he seemed to relish the change and the latest tidal wave of pressure and responsibility. With the Knicks holding a 90-89 lead with less than two minutes left, Yao set up on the right side and beat Clarence Weatherspoon to the baseline. He finished with a slam, and shouting with clenched fists at his sides before going to the line for a three-point play and a 92-90 lead. But on the Rockets next possession, with Yao backing in, Latrell Sprewell knifed in at him from the free throw line to poke the ball loose and took the lead back with a trey. Yao took a pass from Steve Francis to hit a jumper from nine feet. But Weatherspoon answered with a driving jumper. The Rockets went back to Yao and he again began backing into the lane. But while he considered his options and looked for the defensive help that never came, Kurt Thomas reached in from behind to poke the ball free. With another jumper, Sprewell put the Knicks ahead 98-94 with 49.3 seconds remaining. "I think we did a good job to get him the ball," Rockets guard Steve Francis said. "The results we were getting were magnificent. That's the way the game was going. If Cuttino or myself were scoring, or whoever, we would have been going to them late in the game. But we got the ball to him and our percentages were real good on those plays. "Sometimes, they aren't going to give you calls late in the game. Sometimes they let it go regardless, foul or no foul. I think that might have been the case. But experience in the thing that we want. I think Yao probably learned from those two plays." The Rockets' last chance ended on the next trip down the court, when Francis sliced through the Knicks defense until he was cut off by Thomas and called for a charge, the Rockets nineteenth turnover with Francis and Yao each collecting five. Thomas added a jumper with 25.9 seconds left to clinch the win. "Turnovers killed us," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "Twenty-nine points on our turnovers in a game like this, you just can't give it to them," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "We shot the ball great, and executed when we didn't turn it over. But you can't give up 29 points (on turnovers)." The Rockets rarely had looked better offensively than they had through most of the first half. But that might have been misleading even before a 14-point first half lead was slowly erased. The Rockets built their lead with Mobley and Yao sinking just about anything they threw at the basket. When that ended, the Rockets made just 4 of 17 shots in the third quarter and the Knicks completed their comeback to a seven-point lead. Even when the Rockets led by five with 3:27 left, with Mobley cutting to the basket to take a Yao pass for his only field goal in the last 32 minutes, the Knicks rallied again. Weatherspoon dunked on Yao for a three-point play and Howard Eisley nailed a trey for a Knicks lead. With that, the Rockets put the game where it had to be. "The feeling in the arena is really great," Yao said. "But I didn't feel a lot of pressure." There have been too many center stages for that. Instead, he seemed to enjoy the opportunity -- until it slipped away.
Yao is a true professional! He is also a true leader, an excellent teammate, a great player, and a proud and gentle man. I am extraordinarily pleased to have Yao Ming on the Houston Rockets. More than any other Rocket, Yao Ming makes me proud to call myself a Rockets fan.
There are 2 good things about the article. Yao blaming himself - which is a sign of leadership. Steve Francis not blaming Yao - which is a sign of leadership and maturity. Some people may be cynical about their relationship as pure PR. However, it's statements like this that make me believe that maybe time is the simple answer to some of our problems.
I think the one thing in the article that has been missed by many on this BBS this season was in the first sentence of that article. The excitement and buzz were in the air again in the Garden. The one thing that strikes me about this season is that we/Rockets are getting everybody's "A" game. Normally teams like the Lakers (3 time champion), Michael, Sacramento and of late Dallas get this treatment. You can feel the buzz in the air in the arena no matter which city they are playing in. The intensity of the game is always high if not the caliber of play. The few sellouts of someone's poor season are for these teams. Fans of these teams are at the opposing teams arena. Imagine ROCKET FANS at Madison Square Garden. UNBELIEVABLE. When was the last time a team that won less than 30 games the previous season and has barely a plus .500 record this season gets the crowd and opposing team in such a frenzy. There isn't anybody on the Rockets squad besides Rice who has been thru the rigors of this type of season. I can't help but believe that in the long run this will speed up the development process of this young team. I too sit thru the games at times and go what the heck are these guys doing but the one thing you just can't take away from these guys and these games is the intensity level. Not only of the Rockets themselves but of their opponents. Yao for all his strengtns and weaknesses brings out the best in the NBA. I can't think of anyone since Shaq that brings out the excitement in the arena that all of the Rockets games do. Each game has playoff intensity to it. Normally a team with the record the Rockets had last season gets almost a full season off. They come to town without any fanfare and walk out with victories before anyone knew they were there. You'd have thought the Knicks were playing the old Bulls or Lakers by the intensity of the crowd and the players in yesterdays game. You could say the same thing about Boston the night before. As exaspirating as these losses can be, enjoy the season. You truly are watching a team grow up and seeing some very hard played games this year. In the show up when you feel like it era you can't help but enjoy these games.
This doesn't surprise me. Yao screwed up at a critical time in the game, and he's a big enough man to admit it. His teammates would do well to emulate his attitude. but let noone mistake when this game was really lost, at the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd. The Rockets cannot continue to come out of the half and not keep the intensity up. Overall, I'm not too unhappy with the way they are doing. The are getting better at working as a team, and by the time the end of this season arrives they will have a good base established to work from for next season. I knew at the beginning of this season that they were not going to really make that much noise in the postseason anyway, this season is the last year of rebuilding and come next year....look out. Come next season, if they don't have their **** together, then we can start discussing the need for changes. I am willing to give them a year together before I start complaining. It's a shame some others here cant see their way clear to do the same.
Yes, true. This young team has a really bad habit of slacking off at the end of quarters and the beginning of the second half. They lose many games that way.
whats the difference between a turnover and a missed jump shot? I am not saying it wasnt yaos fault but if francis or mobley or yao. in fact anybody took the shot and missed isnt it same as when the ball is stolen?
A Grace Fills Up Garden http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/spo...13feb26,0,3628679.column?coll=ny-knicks-print
