Rudy finally, FINALLY puts some blame on the finger pointing players and some of you guys STILL b****??? Rockets go beyond worst Even good losing effort not there against Heat By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Oh, the good old days, when the Rockets could play the worst teams in the NBA and at least come close. Forget coaching. Don't bother with leadership. Call a therapist. Better still, book an institute. The Houston Head-cases have become about as stable as Michael Jackson. Coming off their finest win of the season, the Rockets took a look at the woeful Heat, and as they have so many times, slipped down to their level and kept on digging. A frantic second half let them lose by only 94-82 on Friday night before a portion of the 15,310 that slowed on their way out like motorists passing a traffic accident. After a team meeting, the only thing clear about a team that can beat the best and lose to the worst was that it should have its head examined. "It's some kind of syndrome and most of it is mental," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said after a 22-minute therapy session with his team. "But thinking about somebody else's problem is not going to do anything. "Whenever we have a pow, bang, positive, there's been a rebound effect. That bothers me. "We had a little meeting. There were suggestions. There were talks. Not one of them talked about a personal checkup on ourselves. It was, `Well, I wonder if guys do this. Are we doing that?' It was talking about other people. The only way this is going to get changed is if everybody evaluates what they're thinking about." But all the talk could only demonstrate again that there is something wrong. As often as the Rockets have played down to any occasion, the symptoms of the syndrome never were more obvious. Most of the game was not as close as even that final score. The Rockets trailed for all but 130 seconds and by as much as 19 points. They only briefly slipped to within seven. With three previous losses to last-place teams and another to the almost-last Grizzlies, the Rockets immediately brought the familiar funk to such occasions. But the Heat really did not bring a team as formidable as even the Clippers, Hawks, Bulls and Grizzlies. Those losses, other than one of the Clippers losses, were on the road. Miami, the league's second-worst shooting and scoring team came in with its top scorer, Eddie Jones, home with a strained left groin muscle. The Rockets spoke about avoiding this trap again in the locker room in Utah on Wednesday, at Westside Tennis Club on Thursday and Compaq Center on Friday. But they did it again from the start. "I think it's just us," forward Maurice Taylor said. "I don't know what it is. The times we need to show ... that we can beat good teams, but we can also beat the teams people think we should beat, we never do it. We have to find a solution to the problem. There's definitely a problem." Of all the moments that became typically pathetic, the play that typified the Rockets' attitude came midway through the second quarter when they were down 16 and seemed to have been sufficiently slapped out of their coma. Miami's second-best rookie Butler, Rasual, sliced through the whole of the Rockets' alleged defense to the rim. He missed the shot, but the rebound bounced around before Malik Allen got around to picking it up and putting it in. There were passes to the post in which the Rockets' defense resembled a bowling alley. There were Heat jump shots in which bad breath would have been a tougher defense than the Rockets offered. There was only a hint of offensive cohesion, as the Rockets racked up four assists in the first half and finished with 10, two more than their fewest this season. "They gave us an old-fashioned butt whipping," said Rockets guard Steve Francis, who had 27 points, but made just six of 18 shots with one assist. "I think we really hurt ourselves by not playing hard from the very beginning." The one thing the Rockets could do well was draw fouls, but all those trips to the line did little other than reduce the game's pace to a crawl. The Rockets made just 26 of 40 free throws, inspiring more thoughts the problem was mental. "Coach hit it right on the nose," Francis said. "It hurts us when people are saying, one person did this, one person did that. That kind of stuff really hurts us. Nobody came out and said it, but I'm pretty sure that's what people are thinking. It gets to be a mental thing."
See, it becomes "finger pointing" when players play as individuals. That's why it's very important that Rudy and Francis lay-down the law and take control of this team. And I don't mean "ISO control" or "Micromanagement control," but adopt the TEAM concept. In order for this to happen, no player should be "looking for their own shot." They must put that aside for the better of the team. This still means that Francis will be the leader. But not at the expense of harming the team concept. They all need to be on the same page. Shots will present themselves when the team system gives those opportunities. Not because someone goes into ISO mode. It's a big philosophy change. And Rudy and Francis should take the helm to make sure everyone follows this plan. Sad to say it, but Moochie also needs to get on the same page with his teammates too, since he shares the PG responsibility.
