Chron: ROCKETS SENT HEAD OVER HEALS

Chron: ROCKETS SENT HEAD OVER HEELS

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/sports/3441806


Nov. 6, 2005, 1:51AM



Rockets sent head over heels
Yao flipped as team flops, letting Hornets win with 17-2 run
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle


Having learned that Rockets forward Tracy McGrady's strained back would keep him out Saturday night and for three more weeks, Hornets coach Byron Scott did what coaches always do.

He warned the Rockets could be a "wounded animal."

He apparently had roadkill in mind.

The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets began the game by flying past the Rockets like their team bus driving by a dead armadillo in the road.

The Rockets eventually did get up off the pavement, but that just let the Hornets run over them again, rolling down the stretch to a 91-84 win Saturday at Toyota Center.

"We still need to look forward. The way Miami will miss Shaq (O'Neal), they'll still need to play," Rockets center Yao Ming said. "Well, the league is not waiting for us or for Tracy to come back. We've got to hang in there. We can do better than that."

Saturday, the Rockets managed to make McGrady's injury beside the point. The Rockets without McGrady looked like the Rockets with McGrady, going down the checklist of last season's shortcomings and failing on every one.

"We still have the same problems we had last spring: one-on-one defense; pick-and-roll defense; (we're a) high-turnover team; when it turned into a street fight, they fought harder than we did; and can we finish?" Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "Right now, we're not a finishing team. That's on me, that nothing's improved."


An 11-point deficit
The Rockets were awful from the start, falling behind by 11 before most of the Toyota Center club fans reached their seats.


But the game also marked the latest in a series of blown leads against the Hornets. The Rockets led by eight with six minutes left and were outscored 17-2 while they made only one of their last 12 shots.

In the final preseason game, the Rockets led the Hornets by 22 and lost. In their last stop in New Orleans last season, they led by 18 and lost.

In two playoff losses to Dallas (Games 3 and 4) last spring, the Rockets led by eight but broke down to allow 20-0 and 15-5 runs.

They've established a trend even McGrady could not have reversed.

"Obviously," Van Gundy said, "we can't finish right now."

The Rockets seemed to have righted themselves in the third quarter when Yao and Desmond Mason squared off.

Yao met Mason, the former NBA dunk champion, at the rim, sending back his attempt at a slam. When Yao tied up Mason for a jump ball, he also brought most of his 312 pounds down on Mason's back. Mason got up, flipping Yao over until Yao almost landed on his head and earning a technical foul.

Juwan Howard then twice shoved Mason. Rockets reserves headed toward the court, with a few going perhaps even a step or two too far to avoid a suspension for leaving the bench area.

If nothing else, that moment showed the Rockets were considerably more interested in winning than they were when they began the game seeming to feel badly for McGrady and themselves.

With six minutes left, Rafer Alston and Derek Anderson nailed consecutive 3s, and the Rockets led 82-74.


Range is hard to find
But the Rockets' offense broke down, and Yao was unable to make the shots to get his team through it. Anderson missed his next 3-pointer. Alston missed a 3 and a pull-up. Jon Barry, who had 24 in Wednesday's opener, airballed a 3.


"Our shot selection in the last quarter was not good," Van Gundy said.

Yao ended an 11-0 Hornets run when his jump hook in the lane gave the Rockets their first points in five minutes. It also gave Yao 20 points to go with 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots, the latter matching his career high.

But rookie Hornets point guard Chris Paul dropped in consecutive runners in the lane and added two free throws to close out the win.

"With their shooting range, it took so long to recover," Yao said. "It's like when we play Dallas, when they have (big nights shooting)."

But the Hornets' shooting was not the only thing similar to when the Rockets played Dallas — with or without McGrady.


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ROCKETS SUMMARY
By JONATHAN FEIGEN


Glover in limbo

Rockets forward Dion Glover traveled home to Atlanta to get another medical opinion on the right knee sprain that has kept him out of action since the first days of two-a-day training camp practices.

Glover is the only player on the Rockets' 15-man roster without a guaranteed contract.

With Tracy McGrady out for three weeks with a back strain, the Rockets might have to make a decision whether Glover can contribute or if the roster spot can be used to bring in help.

Teams must pay the salary of players cut while hurt until considered healthy again.


On fast course
As often as Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy has said the best teams know who they are and how they play, the Hornets, a last-place team a year ago, have that part down. They fill the court with a sprint relay team and run.

"Midway through their year last year, they set a course for how they want to go, which was younger and quicker," Van Gundy said. "Even this year, with the trade of ( Jamaal) Magloire for Desmond Mason, they're a quicker team. They have two point guards ( Speedy Claxton and Chris Paul) they play together some that are both explosive off the dribble.

"They're athletic and quick up front with Chris Anderson, with ( J.R.) Brown, ( Jackson) Vroman and ( David) West. They have great quickness and they utilize it well.

"You have to go back to last year when they made progress through those months, it speaks to his ( Byron Scott's) coaching ability."


Rudy T back in town
Former Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich, who is scouting for the Los Angeles Lakers, got a standing ovation when he was shown on the arena video monitor in the first quarter.

Tomjanovich has scouted Rockets games on the road this season, but it was the first game he attended at Toyota Center, other than his one game in Houston as Lakers coach last season.


Press row view

Perhaps Tracy McGrady would have gotten the Rockets through those ugly final minutes. With the Rockets clanging shots, they needed McGrady. They needed their playmaker. But with or without McGrady, the Rockets have yet to show an ability to play with equal measures of passion and precision, especially down the stretch.

They will play with intensity with the game on the line. Most teams will. But they still have not found much on which they can rely at those moments, other than Yao Ming, who misfired through the fourth quarter Saturday, and McGrady, who wasn't there. Nice additions in the offseason make the summer encouraging. But those closing minutes determine championship contenders.


By the numbers
• 4 — -of-16 shooting for Rockets reserves.
• 30 — Hornets points off the bench, compared to just 17 for the Rockets.
• 1 — Time in Yao Ming's four seasons to open the season with consecutive double doubles, after scoring 20 points with 14 rebounds Saturday.
• 23 — Rockets free throws in the first half, compared to nine for the Hornets.
• 23 — Hornets free throws in the second half, compared to five for the Rockets.

Last word
"With Speedy ( Claxton) and ( Chris) Paul, they did a good job of cracking our defense. It's difficult to win if you let guys into the paint. I guess we were in no-man's land. We were not really guarding the 3 and we were not taking away the drive. We were kind of out there doing nothing."


— Guard David Wesley, on the Rockets' defense.

JONATHAN FEIGEN