Ball movement, extra pass equals 6-game win streak By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Rockets point guard Rafer Alston controlled the ball with his right hand and curled his left into a "C" to call for the team's basic corner play, one of the staples of the Rick Adelman offense. Alston passed to the left corner to Shane Batter, who took a Yao Ming screen back toward the elbow and returned a pass to Alston. Yao cut toward the middle, and everything was set in motion. Alston looked to Yao, who was covered, then passed to his right to Aaron Brooks. Brooks whipped a pass to Bonzi Wells. Wells immediately fired to Yao. Layup. Rockets 74, Cavaliers 59. The play likely appeared on no cable television highlight packages and will be on no best-of-anything lists. But in a few seconds, the ball went from the left corner to the right and to Yao under the rim. All five Rockets touched it. The shot was as easy as if the Cavaliers were back in Cleveland. "That doesn't happen that often," Adelman said, marveling at that particular five-pass play. "That just shows guys are willing to move the ball. I do believe we have a very unselfish team." Adelman has preached the virtues of ball movement since training camp, but in their six-game winning streak, the Rockets have been passing more effectively and confidently than at any other point of the season. The Rockets matched their season high with 29 assists against the Cavaliers on Thursday, then surpassed it with 32 against the Hawks on Saturday. In the winning streak, the Rockets' longest this season, they have averaged 26.8 assists. Prior to this run, they averaged 18.9. "When we move the ball and share the ball and get good shots, we score points, and we're a much, much better team," Battier said. "When our assists are down, that's the telling stat. Our offense suffers, and it's a slugfest. "It's funny how basketball works. When you feel you're part of the game and involved and especially helping your team do good things on the offensive end, I think your entire game elevates. You jump a little higher for rebounds. You run back a little harder on defense. You're into the game. It's just the way basketball is. "If you're not involved and your energy level drops and you feel like a spectator, the other things on the court seem more difficult to accomplish." Alston, McGrady set pace Alston and Tracy McGrady lead the Rockets with 5.4 assists per game. The Rockets would be the only NBA team with two players among the top 20 in assists if McGrady had played enough games to qualify to be listed among the league leaders. But his absence while rehabilitating his left knee injuries forced the Rockets into better ball movement, a trend that has continued in the 11 games (10 wins, including a game he missed with the flu) since he returned. "This is a very unselfish ballclub," McGrady said. "The way the guys were playing while I was out, that's how they were playing, moving the ball. When I came back, I didn't want to take that away; I wanted to add to it. My scoring is down, but I'm playing winning basketball right now, and we're all playing winning basketball now. When we're moving the ball like that and playing unselfishly and getting everybody involved, we're pretty damned good." Assist statistics often are subject to a team's success shooting. But the Rockets insist they are shooting better because of the passing that leads to the shots. Thinking man's game "We're making good decisions with the ball," Alston said. "When they're trying to double-team our best players, they're making solid passes out of the double teams. They're delivering the ball on time and on target, which leads to a better shot. "I think we're just making a more conscious effort to deliver the ball where the shooters can shoot the ball. We're probably taking more pride in passing the ball. We've always been a team that loves to make the extra pass. Sometimes our passing could be off-target. When the ball goes through the rim, it makes you want to pass it again." Other than on McGrady drives, most of the Rockets' passing comes from drawing double teams, rather than penetrating and drawing the defense. Opposing defenses usually can rotate quickly enough to defend the first pass out of a double team. The change in the Rockets has been the subsequent passes, so that the recent surge in assist numbers does not indicate how often a series of passes led to each assist. "It's a level of trust that you develop with each other," Adelman said. "A lot of times, the guy who gets the first pass isn't going to get the assist. But he's trusting the fact that if he makes that pass, it's going to lead to the basket. That just comes from trust. We had a lot of guys with a lot of assists (Saturday) night. That's what you want. It's not just one or two guys who are doing it all. You have a combination of guys. That's hard to guard." That's the idea. But beyond that, it has been hard to beat. jonathan.feigen@chron.com
I have seen in the early season that our players seemed to hesistate to pass or their passing was without confidence and sloppy at times. This is attributed to team is still learning the Adelman system. However, as shown currently, they have get comfortable with the system more now after many games and practices. They still a lot more to learn and to get use to and when they do, they will look smooth and synchronise and with the skills and talents we have, we will be a formidable team.
Another reason assists are going up is the play of the power forwards, El Skol! and Mandry can put the ball into the basket on a consistent basis without losing the least bit of the Chuckwagon's hustle.
That's really well said by Battier. I've always felt that the main problem with the old JVG offense of pounding it into Yao or TMac was that it left our other players standing around, uninvolved and cold. That was why the role players kept missing all the open shots that Yao and TMac created.
26.8ppg during this winning streak -> NUFF SAID. we're passing like the suns and yet play defense like we did under JVG. adelman is showing his influence.
since Othella? Come on, give Scola more credit than that. I haven't seen a Rockets PF with a higher basketball IQ since Horry. And yes that includes a certain TNT commentator.
That's a straight-up indictment of Jeff Van Gundy's offense. Now the question is: Did guys like Battier play like spectators because they were stuck in Van Gundy's offense? Or did Van Gundy play that offense because he was stuck with guys like Battier?
45-23 would probably be top four at least, on pace for a 55-27 season. So yeah we probably won't go 15-3 in our next 18.
There're 9 West teams playing .600 ball. If that continues and the pingpong balls bounce right, a team with 50 wins will get the 1st draft pick!
Who cares? What matters is what we are doing now. We need to stop dwelling on the past and look forward to the future. I smell a Championchip!
