Rockets pay for Cavalier attitude Late rally falls short against NBA's dregs By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle CLEVELAND -- Having tried everything else, Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich was ready to cut into his team while its wounds were open and remove whatever sickness had become untreatable. The Rockets had tried to cure themselves. Tomjanovich talked and talked about the trap of the All-Star break dancing in and how they couldn't let the Cavaliers slap them with another bad loss. But of course the Rockets played with the usual lack of poise and professionalism, and they took another bad team lightly. That is what they do. The NBA's worst team did all it could to help the Rockets win. But the Cavaliers could only do so much wrong before accepting a 105-102 win Wednesday, sending the Rockets to the All-Star break pained and bloody. "That's a characteristic, if I had a scalpel, I would dig it out," Tomjanovich said of the Rockets' latest loss to a last-place team. "We've been working on it. We're trying to get this team smarter, and (to have) respect for the league. But that's been a battle. It's been a challenge. "When you look at this," he said, snapping the stat sheet, "it's close. (But) there's something inside, an edge inside that gets it done. You have to have it. You could look at this and say, `Shoot the Rockets won that. They did this. They did that.' But it's something else, and we've got to get it somewhere along the line." It is simple professionalism, maturity, intelligence. By now, the Rockets knew they could be successful home-court front-runners, getting by on talent and a usually sharp defense. But take them on the road, and the Rockets have consistently played down to any level and fallen apart under pressure. "We talked about it," Cuttino Mobley said. "We came out flat. They beat us to the ball. They outrebounded us. We caught ourselves trying to come back. It's frustrating. You see it. You try to get everybody together as a team. `Let's go. We're ready. Let's play. We don't want to get a loss.' It just didn't click in. "Hopefully, during this break we can think about that because we have a lot of growing up to do." The Rockets did not do anything too poorly to win. They shot a good percentage, 48.7 percent. They moved the ball well in the second half, scored in the paint and even defended well after a sloppy first half. But they knew that they were a step slow physically at the start and mentally throughout. They held Cavaliers' leading scorer Ricky Davis to 7-of-21 shooting. But he found the holes in the Rockets' defense for 10 assists and for Jumaine Jones to nail three consecutive 3-pointers for a nine-point Cleveland lead at halftime. The Cavaliers led by as much as 14 and still held a 12-point lead with 4 1/2 minutes left. But they went through their customary late collapse. The Rockets -- carried by Maurice Taylor who had a season-high 30 -- used a 14-2 run to cut the margin to one. The Rockets were still within one with 37.8 seconds left when Cleveland native James Posey made one of two free throws. But after Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed for the Cavaliers, Rockets guard Steve Francis chose to determine the game with a 40-foot, fast-break pass to Yao Ming. As if suddenly realizing the likelihood of such an odd choice working, he tried to softly drop it into place, and Milt Palacio easily grabbed it. "Mental, mental, mental, mental -- nothing else," Francis said of the Rockets' shortcoming on Wednesday. "Physically, I know guys were tired. But mentally, we didn't focus on anything. I can't even begin to think about how bad it is. "I didn't want to throw it out of bounds, but then again, I should have kept the ball. I saw his face and it looked like he was wide open. That was a play that was crucial in the game. But there were so many little things we messed up on, we shouldn't have been in that position. Ill-advised shots and missed assignments. When you compound all those things, you're going to get what we got at the end." The end came 12.2 seconds later. Francis sent Palacio to the line, and he coolly took the Cavaliers' lead back to three. When Francis' usual top-of-the-key 3 was cut off, he passed to Mobley, but Mobley rushed a high-arcing trey that missed. Mobley said his mistake was not using the remaining ticks to pump fake and take his normal shot. But the Rockets knew they cost themselves another game long before their last shot, and probably before their first. "This has been a characteristic," Tomjanovich said. "It isn't something we'll sweep that under the carpet. It's something we address all the time. "It's going to hurt, It's hurting me. If it doesn't hurt our guys there's something wrong. That's no disrespect to Cleveland. We have to think about our situation. I don't care who this is. We got to find a way to win if we're going to talk about being a playoff team. We've had a couple of these. The question is, "Are we ready? When these things happen, you have to question that." The question by now is not how the Rockets could lose to the Cavaliers. And Grizzlies. And Bulls. And Clippers. The question now is what that says about them.
But the Rox worry soooo much about scoring when they struggle that the forget to play defense. To make matters worse, the whole time our opponents are playing team offense. Let's recap... Rox: individual offense, lackluster defense. Opponents: team offense, above average defense. Who wins?
Also from the Chron in the summary section: Did you know The Rockets fell to 7-15 on the road, the worst road record for any NBA team with a winning record.
Wonder why they always have a quote from Mobley, a guy who hardly practices what he preaches. He's stevie best mate off the courtt, but during games its got to be YAO We shuda, cuda, WTH does he want to say????
"We're trying to get this team smarter." Nice thought, Rudy. I remember when you said, "If I've got to motivate my guys, I've got the wrong guys." Think that could be true of brains, too?
I just think this is a weak quote for the coach. I am not saying he needs to be Jerry Sloan or Pat Riley, though Riley has a few more titles than Rudy does and got pretty medicore teams deep into the playoffs preaching (or demanding and kicking ass if need be) defense and intensity. However coaches should intervene when they sense their players need a push or at least tweak in their thinking or motivation sometimes--even if it takes a subtle form more like Phil Jackson does. I guess I am saying I want to see a little more Pat Riley in Rudy and a little less Rick Adelman. Of course this isn't the first Rocket team to get major letdowns--even his best teams especially in the late regular season where prone to this sometimes even with high stakes. Sometimes a little butt kicking is a good thing in an NBA coach.
I think we've discussed this before but Rudy is better on a veteran team with experience. On a young team you need a more fiery tactician rather than an overseer of talent. Eric Mussleman is a great fit with Golden State and has gotten the most out of his players.
