http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2983427 Loss at L.A. drops record to sub-.500 again By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle LOS ANGELES - This time, Rudy Tomjanovich said coaching against the Rockets would be just another game. It was to the Rockets, too. For a half, it was just another early surrender, just another game in which they struggled in some ways, then made sure they would break down in every way in a 111-104 loss. The difference was that at halftime the Rockets seemed to decide that as long as they were here and getting all sweaty anyway, they might as well make it a game. They gave themselves a chance, climbing all the way back to within six, but if the Lakers did not win until the last minute, for the Rockets it was another game lost in the first half. Trailing by as much as 24 points, the Rockets got as close as 106-100 with 90 seconds left when Tracy McGrady nailed a long jumper and Maurice Taylor sank a pair of free throws. But Lamar Odom took a pass from Kobe Bryant at the top of the arc and nailed a 3-pointer for a 109-100 Lakers lead with 1:07 remaining. Taylor scored inside, but by then, the Rockets were forced to foul. Odom missed both free throws, and with the Lakers all over McGrady at the 3-point line, McGrady passed to Bob Sura, who missed from the corner. Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 27 points and 10 assists while McGrady answered with 26 points and eight assists. Yao Ming had 25 points in 30 minutes before fouling out with Sura adding 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Juwan Howard hit a pair of jumpers to start the second half and Yao scored twice inside, and before many in the Staples Center crowd of 18,997 had made their way back to their seats, the Rockets had a 12-2 run to begin the half. That still left a lot of work to do. But McGrady, who did not score at all in the second quarter, had yet to take a shot in the second half. That changed rapidly. McGrady knocked down a 3 with his first shot of the half and had 11 points and four assists in the quarter. He also switched defensively onto Bryant, holding him scoreless in the quarter. And after a first half in which the Rockets were better with him on the bench, Yao began catching passes inside to score 10 points in the quarter. When he scored inside through a Lamar Odom foul, the Rockets had cut the lead to nine. But the Lakers began the fourth quarter by scoring the first six points in a 9-1 run, and the Rockets fell back by 15 and seemed to have done too much damage in the first half to overcome. They remained in the game, however, and with 5 1/2 minutes left, McGrady scored to cut the lead to 96-88. The Rockets kept scoring, but could not get closer without getting stops. By the time they did, it was much too late. The Rockets had shot horribly from the outset. But that was not their greatest problem. They responded to shooting horribly by shutting it down defensively, too. It surely did not help that they started the night making just 5 of 19 shots in the first quarter, including a stretch of five minutes in which they missed all eight of their shots and the Lakers ran through an easy 11-0 run. ------------------------- Rockets Summary Coming up roses Rudy Tomjanovich received the expected phone calls and best wishes from Houston. He spoke of his roses, laughing when he revealed the tall ones were named "Yao" and "Ming" and the wild one growing over the fence was "Steve Francis." He only laughed when asked which one had the most thorns. He remembered the emotions of the previous meeting with the Rockets, when his career in Houston was celebrated and he said he shocked Rockets owner Leslie Alexander with one of those all-out Tomjanovich hugs. But this was different. Friday, he said he was simply the Lakers coach coaching in Los Angeles. "I really want to win this game just because we need a win," Tomjanovich said. "If I bring all that extra Rockets stuff, it's going to knock my focus off. "I can honestly say going back there was nothing but a positive feeling, and we won the game. I was so free. I love those people. I saw Les and thanked him again for all the support he gave me. Because I felt it. "I've been a very fortunate person in all the experiences I had, winning championships, winning gold medals, and getting over cancer, and hearing the words, 'You're cured.' Going back to Houston was another one. Hey, I had a storybook life already. This is a new chapter out there. It's a challenge. It's going to be a tough challenge. I'd love to get this thing turned around." The Rockets could say the same thing, with both teams fighting for a Western Conference playoff spot. "They're about where we're at," Tomjanovich said. "They're trying to discover themselves with new personality, and really two great players in Tracy McGrady and Yao (Ming). "The Houston Rockets were a part of my life for many, many years. I'll always have feelings of gratitude to all the owners. I had a run there most people don't get in this crazy business." My mistake After the Rockets allowed a season-high 15 3-pointers against the Suns, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said he did not emphasize taking away the arc enough because of the priority of taking away the lane. Facing the Lakers on Friday, the second-most prolific 3-point shooting team in the NBA, he said he would not make the same mistake. "That was my mistake against Phoenix," he said. "I didn't give our guys enough credit. We could have done both better, taking away the paint and covering the line. So that's our goal. We always try to take away the lane. But they can do both. Against Phoenix, we underachieved in that game defensively because we didn't make the second and third effort we're capable of." The Suns and Lakers differ offensively, even in the half-court, because of Phoenix's Steve Nash working as a playmaker. But they both spread the floor with shooters. "You can't just pack the lane and let them shoot open 3s," forward Maurice Taylor said. "We didn't close out to the shooters in that game the way we needed to. We took care of the lane, but we didn't take care of their biggest weapon, the 3-pointer. We have to be able to do both." -- JONATHAN FEIGEN
We did two things wrong last night. First, we shouldn't have given that many open 3's, as JVG regreted. We had Yao & Deke in the middle, why do we have to pack the paint on defense? Second, everyone in the world knew our hope of defeating the Lakers rely on going to Yao early and often. What did we do? We went to him FOUR freaking times, and he didn't see the ball again after missed 3 of the 4 shots. And worse, JVG kept him on the bench for all but 11 minutes. Now, if that's a fan coaching the Rockets, I can understand the panic. But you are a freaking NBA coach, you should have known better that the guy is a 50% shooter. Sooner or later, his shots will start to fall. What kind of message does that send to the players? We spend all the preparation to set up the plan, now let's change that after five minutes because the guy missed THREE shots in the 1st qtr? Unbelievable!
