[Chron] Rockets struggle without offensive focal point

Yao unable to collect, convert positive touches
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2885608

MEMPHIS, TENN. - If it just didn't look so darn easy. The guy is 7-6. Stand over there. Call for the ball. Get it. Put it in. Easy.


If it didn't look so easy, Yao Ming's struggles would not be so confounding. But that's the way it is with special talents. They make it seem simple, but that does not mean it is. Yao drops in a jump hook or nails a baseline jumper and it looks as if he should do it all night.

The day might come when his pet moves take their place with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's sky hook and Wilt Chamberlain's finger roll. Yao's third season was presumed to be a step in that direction, and after just two games heading into tonight's test against Memphis still could be. But Yao has been just another guy on an 0-2 team. He has taken just nine shots in each game, making seven total. He has nine turnovers. The Rockets have seemed unable to make him a focal point in their offense.

"He understands where he's at," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "He doesn't want to shy away from responsibility, and I think he understands that he and Tracy (McGrady) have to have unique seasons for us to have a year we're happy with."

McGrady got off to a one-for-eight start to the season. But as a ballhandler able to create his own shot, he has seemed to have found his place in the offense. Yao has seemed lost.

"Me and Yao are still trying to feel each other out," McGrady said. "It's going to take some time."

The Rockets were unable to get Yao touches against the muscular defense of Ben Wallace or the long and lean distraction of Loren Woods. They will look in that direction again tonight, with Yao initially going against the quick, but relatively slight Stromile Swift or undersized Lorenzen Wright.

"It will run through Tracy and Yao and that doesn't mean that the other people are not going to get shots," Van Gundy said of the Rockets' offense. "But if you have 100 possessions a game, and 20 are in transition, if you're going to have a first option, 60 of those remaining 80 percent will go to those two. That doesn't mean they're going to get the shot. Good defense is going to dictate more who gets the shots than the offense does."

But the problem seems as much with the Rockets as with the defenders they have faced. As with everything else about the Rockets' preseason and early struggles, those difficulties seem to go back to familiarity and timing.

Since the rule changes that have allowed defenders to pack the paint, post-up offenses have been slowed and getting the ball inside has become more involved. Shaquille O'Neal can carve out space with his bulk. Yao has to battle and then receive the ball in the short time he is in position to catch it, often working to post up in one spot and shifting to another.

"You just have a lot more options (defensively)," Van Gundy said. "You can double-team a man without the ball, you can front without clearing out the back side. Once a guy gets it, you have a lot more help and a lot less room for the post man. Generally, it takes a lot more time to get a quality shot.

"More so than ever, you need five guys you can put on the floor that are options because you can take away first options and second options, yet you have to have guys who are unselfish enough to know who they are. The post should benefit a perimeter player and a perimeter player should benefit the post."

The Rockets seem to have that. The new starters around McGrady and Yao — Charlie Ward and Maurice Taylor — have shot well. But the offense has seemed to slow, even from its less-than-blinding pace, while trying to get Yao free.

"Especially when teams front you and have the weak-side guy pulling over, it's really hard to get the ball inside," said guard Tyronn Lue, who played with O'Neal before the rule changes. "The weak-side guy can drop right into your lap. But when you have a dominant guy like Yao or Shaq, the other team is going to work to keep you from getting the ball to those people. But it's something you have to do."

They must and believe they can.

"It's not the rules," Ward said. "It's whether a team fights to get the ball in the paint or not. It can be easy and it can be hard. We can get it in to him, or anyone. But we have to work together to make sure it happens."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

 

(Continued from above)

Rockets summary

Flashing marquees
The Rockets' trade for Tracy McGrady inspired increased attention and expectations, so much so that tonight's game will be their second of their first three on national television. (The other, at Toronto, was on national television in Canada.)

The Rockets have not played up to those expectations but said they will not concern themselves with what others thought.

"The only thing I think is unfair is the comparison to ( Shaquille) O'Neal and ( Kobe) Bryant," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said of the combination of Yao Ming and McGrady. "I think that is unfair to O'Neal and Bryant because of all they accomplished.

"Our pairing would have to win as much as they did to be compared. Expectations are part of the NBA. Whether they are fair or unfair doesn't matter. You just have to deal with them and not as a coach or a team get caught up in the expectations. We understand we have a lot to prove. It starts with me."

McGrady said he knew the start would be tough, but did not seem to have lost confidence.

"It's tough to win," he said. "Regardless of it being T-Mac and Yao — we're two up-and-coming superstars in the league — but that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to win every game.

"It's going to be tough with new faces on this ballclub. We're trying to feel each other out."


A step slow
The Rockets split their first two games last season, holding the Nuggets and Grizzlies to an average of 82 points. Between them, the Nuggets and Grizzlies made just 38.8 percent of their shots.

But Maurice Taylor said the transition to Jeff Van Gundy's defense was as difficult for last season's team as it has been this season.

"If you remember last year, when we started off, our defense wasn't as good either," Taylor said. "A lot of people who were new to Jeff's system, it hadn't clicked yet, they weren't used to how quickly we have to help each other, how quick we have to recover.

"I don't think we're a bad defensive team. I think everyone understands the concepts. But we're reacting a little slow to everything."