[Chron] Rockets regain shooting touch, drop Jazz 96-92

Rockets regain shooting touch, drop Jazz 96-92

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Derek Fisher never saw Chuck Hayes, never felt him near. But there Hayes was, and at last the Rockets would not back down.

With their first-round Western Conference playoff series tied and perhaps hanging in the balance, the Utah Jazz were at full speed, flying into the heart of the Rockets. But this time, after they had collapsed so completely for two games in Salt Lake City, the Rockets jumped into the teeth of the Jazz attack.

With the Rockets clinging to a shaky two-point lead and Fisher turning the corner and heading toward the rim, Hayes came over and drew a charge with 12.5 seconds left, helping to seal the Rockets' 96-92 Game 5 win over the Jazz at Toyota Center on Monday.

With Yao Ming putting in two free throws and Hayes adding a blocked shot in the final seconds, the Rockets took a 3-2 lead in the series, with Game 6 set for Thursday at EnergySolutions Arena. In 136 best-of-seven playoff series that have been tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has gone on to win 114.

Just in time, the Rockets got their offense going as they had not all series and, in some cases, their careers.

Tracy McGrady added a career-high 16 assists to his 26 points. Yao paired a career playoff-high 15 rebounds with his 21 points. Shane Battier had a career playoff-high 15 points, making five of seven shots, all from beyond the arc. The Rockets had more players scoring in double figures (five) than they had scoring at all in Game 3 (four).

But this team, this season and, most of all, this series have been about defense. So it took the guy who did not score a point to shut the door.

"I saw Fisher coming around the corner," said Hayes, who had come in for Yao for defensive purposes. "I didn't know when to give fake help or throw my whole body in front of him. Game on the line, I took that gamble, took that chance. And the referee (Steve Javie) called it in our favor. I was afraid he would swallow his whistle and not call anything. Contact like that, sometimes they're going to put the whistles away and let the players play or give it to the veteran like Derek Fisher.

"I felt a lot of shoulders and his chest in my chest. I thought I was there."

Fisher thought he was not.

"I made my move, and he wasn't there," Fisher said. "I'd like to think if I saw somebody in my path on a shot, I'd get out of the way. I was in my shooting motion before I saw him.

"It was a bang-bang play. That's why you try to stay out of those situations on the road."

Offense gets going

To that point, the Rockets had turned the game around and perhaps saved their season by getting their offense in gear and showing the resilience they had not in Utah.

Late in the first half, they were down 10. Yao was 1-for-9. McGrady had left the floor with a hip pointer, coming back minutes later still hobbling.

"Things looked bleak," said Battier, who ended the first half and began the second with 3-pointers to complete the Rockets' comeback. "I think we have a lot of fight when we want to have fight. And it's easier to have fight at home."

After missing seven consecutive shots, the Rockets made their last seven of the first half, with McGrady getting assists on six and hitting a 3 on the other.

"I was trying to give my teammates open shots and also attack the basket," McGrady said. "I just wanted to take advantage of the matchups I had out there.

"We had a couple guys come off the milk carton. We found a couple of those guys, and they were able to knock down some shots, so that helped us a lot."

But the Rockets never could build any kind of substantial lead until midway through the fourth quarter. McGrady hit a pull-up and a drive before Yao sank a layup with 3:58 left to give the Rockets their largest lead, 91-84.

Jazz miss chances

The Jazz rallied back within one and twice had shots for the lead. Mehmet Okur missed a 3-pointer. Andrei Kirilenko got the rebound, but Matt Harpring left his jumper short.

Rafer Alston got the rebound and was immediately fouled with 20.5 seconds left. He made his second free throw, putting the Rockets in front 94-92 and in need of one more stop.

"We kept fighting. We kept competing," Alston said. "We were determined to get stops and finish it off with a rebound."

They got what they needed most. And when Jesse Jackson huddled with McGrady in the Rockets' locker room later, McGrady could tell Jackson that when in trouble, the Rockets had kept hope alive.

ROCKETS SUMMARY

No one's looking ahead to Warriors
Rockets 'in a knife fight ... with knife fighters,' Van Gundy says

With the Warriors leading the Mavericks 3-1 in their NBA playoff series, there is an increasing chance the winner of the Rockets-Jazz series will have home-court advantage in the second round.

"I know what's going on," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "If you were in a knife fight in an alley somewhere, you wouldn't be saying, 'If I get by this guy, I'll kick the next guy's (butt).' We're in a knife fight right now with knife fighters. We're trying to win this one little skirmish."

Visitors get fouled up

For all the difficulties the Rockets had in Salt Lake City, one problem area was particularly unexpected and crucial.

The Rockets were seventh in the league in fewest fouls per game in the regular season. The Jazz committed the most in the NBA.

In the first four games, the team committing fewer fouls won. In Games 1 and 2, the Rockets committed an average of 15.5 fouls and shot an average of 32 free throws. The Jazz committed 25.5 fouls and shot an average of 17 free throws.

In Games 3 and 4, the Rockets committed an average of 23 fouls and took 23 free throws per game. The Jazz committed an average of 22 fouls and took 25.5 free throws per game.

"One of the two visiting teams has to stop fouling," Rockets guard Rafer Alston said. "When you get beat, guys tend to reach in or just take one. Sometimes you have to get your body positioned right or stand up in front of the guy and put your hands up and your hands back instead of reaching in and trying to go for blocks.

"What we need to do is get more drives and more penetration. We're settling for jumpers. The only inside play we get is when we post Yao (Ming). We have to get Tracy (McGrady) more in attack mode and get him closer to the basket. Myself, off pick-and-roll, I have to get to the paint area and get some dishes and some drives."

Something not right

Though foul trouble often indicates holes in a defense or a lack of focus, coach Jeff Van Gundy could not cite a particular cause for the Rockets' uncharacteristic difficulty avoiding fouls.

"It indicates something. I'm not exactly sure what," he said. "It indicates something you're not doing right. Sometimes it's (being) less aggressive; sometimes it's (a) lack of intelligence that gets you there. Sometimes it can be a questionable call here or there."

Form held in Game 5, but barely. The Jazz had more fouls than the Rockets (18-17).

Situation not normal

With Luther Head and Juwan Howard averaging just a combined 7.6 points in the first four games of the series, coach Jeff Van Gundy said the attention paid to the bench's troubles is understandable but incomplete.

"It is important, but it really is the guys that are shooting the most that we need to be more productive," Van Gundy said. "Certainly their numbers are so abnormal that it draws a lot of attention. Just as abnormal to me is that our starters have shot abnormally."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4763554.html

 

That's funny I hadn't seen that before, thank god they've been found!