[CHRON] Rockets steal thunder

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3101872


Rockets steal thunder
Sudden burst of brilliant play overwhelms Cavs, caps frustrating night for LeBron
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Leslie Alexander, who can always control himself during a game, could not. Perhaps he knew that there was no point in trying, but he could keep his seat and straight face no longer.

The Kid King was on display, if not at the top of his game. But the Rockets owner saw Tracy McGrady turn back into Tracy McGrady. He watched Jon Barry out-LeBron LeBron James. He saw Dikembe Mutombo hit James with something more impressive than one of his rock-hard elbows. Alexander could not help but let his inner Mark Cuban come bubbling out.

So with the Rockets exploding through a wild 12-0 fourth-quarter run to turn a close game into a 99-80 rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, Alexander jumped in front of his courtside seat, beaming with his arms raised triumphantly.

"You don't see the owner do that too much, do you?" Rockets guard Bob Sura said. "If we get the owner pretty fired up making those kinds of plays, you know we're on top of our game."

McGrady had driven himself from his five-game shooting slump. After making 30 percent of his shots in those games, he attacked the basket and regained his touch, hitting 11 of 21 shots to score 31 points in front of a sellout crowd of 18,208 at Toyota Center.

James could not find his shot, making just 7 of 22 attempts for his 19 points, most from the perimeter. But the Rockets took off when he challenged Mutombo with 8:31 to play.

Mike James had nailed a 3-pointer to start the run. But the sudden pyrotechnics began when LeBron took off on a drive with Mutombo stepping up to swat away his shot and begin the 90 seconds that changed the game irrevocably.

"He knew I was coming," Mutombo said. "I was telling Tracy this morning, 'Don't worry about guarding him. If he's going to drive to the basket, he's going to have No. 55 in his eyes.'

"We knew he didn't want to come in there. That's why he was taking all those jumpers. I was waiting on him."

Before Mutombo could finish wagging his finger, McGrady had grabbed the rebound and flipped it to Mike James for a layup. Moments later, Barry freed himself with a dramatic jab step and then nailed a 3. Cleveland guard Jeff McInnis missed a jumper and Barry flipped a 45-foot behind-the-back pass for a McGrady layup.

"I didn't even think about it," Barry said. "It was a complete reaction. That's just playing, maybe it's a strange way to play, but it works, so Coach can't say anything about it."

Jeff Van Gundy might have been tempted but had long since decided when to hold his tongue.

"I was once told you can't separate the good and the bad from somebody; you accept the whole package," Van Gundy said. "The entirety of the package is really good. The passion, the passing, basketball intelligence, shooting. So I choose to focus on the 99 percent that I really love about (Barry) and his game and try to put deep in the recesses of my memory the one percent I'd like to change."

When Scott Padgett followed that by stripping Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Barry took off for another fast break, lifting another pass to McGrady, with McGrady not bothering to land before putting in another layup for an 85-65 Rockets lead barely two minutes since Cleveland was within eight points.

With that, Alexander was out of his seat and the Rockets could begin revving the charter for New Orleans.

"We just starting playing real good defense, and I think that our defense started leading to fast-break points," Mike James said. "All of a sudden, we got into a rhythm and we would get stops on one end and ... started getting into a flow."

With McGrady driving it, the Rockets' offense was sharper than it had been in the past three games, with McGrady admitting he was as inspired by his matchup with James as he was determined to drive to the basket.

"I think the past five or six games, (my) shooting has been horrific," McGrady said. "I've been struggling with my shooting. In order to break out of a funk, I tried to get to the free-throw line. I just wanted to be aggressive and go to the hole.

"It's a great challenge. You've got two competitors going head to head. I want to beat him. He wants to beat me. I could see the frustration on his face. I had a talk with him and told him to keep his head up. I told him to keep his head up and believe in guys and lead them into the playoffs. But I'm always looking forward to that challenge."

There was a lot of that going around, with McGrady and David Wesley taking turns defending James.

"Our defense was really good from the second quarter on," Barry said. "After the first quarter, it was stifling at times. And it was good to get out on the break."

It was good enough to bring even the most stoic to their feet.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com