T-Mac drives Rockets to win Long road trip ends with Yao out, solid 5-1 mark By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle LOS ANGELES - The incredible shrinking team came up very large. On a night that started with Yao Ming out with an injury and ended with Dikembe Mutombo joining him, in which the Rockets shot worse for a half than they have all season and seemed as beaten as they were physically battered, the Rockets took a Tracy McGrady layup with three-tenths of a second left to a 76-74 victory Sunday over the Los Angles Lakers. With a stirring second-half comeback and a spectacular turn of events in the final half-minute, the Rockets completed their longest road trip in 16 years with five wins, more than they have had on one road trip in franchise history. "The guys hung in really, really tough," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "They could have let go of the rope. They battled hard." With the Rockets clinging to a two-point lead, McGrady circled to his left with 24 seconds remaining only to have Kwame Brown beat him there, strip the ball and take off the other way for an uncontested dunk that tied the game 74-74 with 19.4 seconds remaining. "Kwame throughout the whole game really wasn't that aggressive when I was coming of the pick-and-roll," McGrady said. "Maybe the coaches said something to him in the timeout because he surprised the hell out of me. ... It was a great play." McGrady moved left again, but this time flew past Devean George on the perimeter and swerved around Lamar Odom in the lane. When he put his lefthanded layup in before Brown could come over, the Rockets had left the Lakers only enough time to catch and shoot. "I probably would have done the same thing after a timeout, just give him the ball," Van Gundy said of his decision not to call time out to set up a last shot. "He's a great player. He's hard to guard. Devean George did a heck of a job on him. Tracy made a great play late." Smush Parker beat the buzzer with a jumper from 21 feet, but it fell short. "We're tough," Rockets guard Luther Head said. "There's no quit in this team. We had some bumps in the road and a few injuries. But we still have to fight. This showed us we are capable of winning games when we have players hurt." With Yao the latest Rockets player to leave the team because of an injury, flying to Houston on Sunday to begin work on his sore right big toe, the Lakers were determined to shut down McGrady and take their chances with what is left of the Rockets around him. Even with Kobe Bryant assigned to defend him, when McGrady put the ball on the floor, the Lakers moved to cut off any drive that would follow. In the first half, when he found the shooters the Lakers left open on the perimeter, they were missing. When he passed inside, the ball was barely touched before it became a turnover. But in the second half, David Wesley and Head began shooting better than they had on the road trip. The Rockets had gone from a 12-point deficit to an 11-point lead, even while losing Mutombo with 4:51 remaining with a dislocated and lacerated finger that needed eight stitches to close on his right hand. Even after the Lakers closed to within two, McGrady passed to Wesley in the corner for a 3-pointer that gave the Rockets a 74-69 lead with 2:41 left. Brown took a point off that lead before Odom hit his first shot with 44.8 seconds left, cutting the lead to two, with the Rockets putting the game in McGrady's hands in the final half-minute. But if the Rockets took the win in the last second, they were as remarkable in avoiding the loss in the third quarter. Well into the third quarter, the Rockets had shown few signed of life offensively. They had made 14 of 48 shots, McGrady had four fouls and the Lakers led by 12 points, a lead that had come so easily it seemed to bore the Staples Center crowd and the Lakers. But with a sudden 15-0 run, the Rockets scored more points in a 2:17 burst, 13, than in the entire first quarter and outscored the Lakers, 25-5, in the final 7:20 of the third quarter. The Lakers needed almost the entire fourth quarter to close the gap, but if the Rockets could come back from all that had already gone wrong, they knew they could come back again. "I knew they just tied the game up and it was all in my hands to win this game for us," McGrady said. "That's the only thing I had in mind, to attack the basket and get something good. "To be a great player in this league, you can't let something like that get you down. That's what I did." jonathan.feigen@chron.com
"To be a great player in this league, you can't let something like that get you down. That's what I did." And that's truly who you are, TMac.
Man, this is the sweetest win to me so far. We beat my most hated team. We did it short-handed. Not counting TMac, we only had 3 healthy guards. One is over the hill. One is a rookie. And the third one is called Moochie. Our all star center was not there. Our backup center and best rebounder was injured in crunch time. We were playing a back to back, fourth game in 5 days on the road. We still came up with a win over the hot Lakers in their backyard. How sweet is it?
t-mac was having a pretty bad game which makes that shot even more impressive. George was playing some really good d on him. most defenders play off because they don't want to get beat but george must have known t-mac was shooting a lot of jumpers this season because he was really on him tight.
"To be a great player in this league, you can't let something like that get you down. That's what I did." Yao would never say that.....
How do we respond to a 7-game losing streak? : We fight hard for every game How do we respond to a 6-game road trip? : we fight hard for every game How do we respond when our roster gets diminished as 7 players (of our 15-man roster) have had to leave with injury? : we fight hard for every game How do we respond when, after losing to the Clippers just just 24 hours earlier and going down by 12 against the Lakers with 2 quarters to play? : we fight hard for every game If we ever get healthy, this Rockets team will be one of the mentally toughest teams in the NBA.
Fully agree, Luther Head said it best: "We're tough," Rockets guard Luther Head said. "There's no quit in this team. We had some bumps in the road and a few injuries. But we still have to fight. This showed us we are capable of winning games when we have players hurt." This team has showed great heart and mental toughness throughout this season, even when they lost those 8 games without TMac, they played tough every game and hung in there, but they just couldn't finish off games without their closer. This is undoubtedly the toughest team in the league, to continue to win despite our depleted roster and less-than-ideal role players just shows how resilliant we are. If anything, the struggles we've gone through all season long have made us a better team, with better character, and if we ever get healthy as a complete unit and make the playoffs, there will be hell to pay whomever we play.
Not to disregard your statement, but I still feel that it was a bold one nonetheless. You really feel the Rockets are mentally tougher than the pistons or spurs? Those 2 teams are very much "in check" and focused EVERY night.
Hmmm, a little sensitive are we? How do you equate "we are 'one of the' mentally toughest teams", and "our team can win even when hurting", to we're better than the spurs and pistons. You make it sound like we're saying we're the best, which no one did. You're the only one comparing them to those other teams.
Yeah... Yao is p***y and sux.... actually the whole Rockets roster never say that except T-Mac so they all suck
Hello Severe Rockets Fan, nice of you to drop one of your barbs in dang'ol. The point that I was conveying is I was just wondering how TIGERMISSION said in his post that the Rockets are the MENTALLY TOUGHEST team in the LEAGUE. This would imply that they are tougher than the likes of the spurs and pistons as well. My post was actually quite sensible. Thanks a lot though. 'preciate it. Dang'ol.
dabien1, I do think we're mentally tougher than either of those teams, and if we have equal talent (not more, just equal), there is NO DOUBT in my mind we'ld beat them both. I think you might have an argument with the Pistons, but the Spurs have shown before that they do fold under pressure sometimes and sometimes don't finish games. As things stand, however, there is no chance of having that tested, because the Spurs and the Pistons are infinitely more talented than we are and would wear us down in a 7-game series. So are they better teams? Of course. Are they mentally tougher? IMO, no. Just my opinion though, not based on any 'facts' or any hard evidence, but that's just how I see it.
No prob. But you're still not off the hook from the question Do you think the Rockets are mentally tougher than spurs and pistons? Sure you can make the argument that the rockets have overcome and are still enduring major adversities this season.
After this road trip, I must say that I have no doubt this Rockets team is mentally tough. I think it was last year when the Spurs went 8-0 on a road trip. And the Pistons, well, that team just spells the true definition of teamwork. So in both cases, those teams are as tough as they come. If the Rockets can continue putting together winning streaks then I can truly say they are the toughest in the league so far. On a side note, I really WISH the Rockets could play an 82 game season on the ROAD. I dont' know about you, but I have so much confidence in this team while on the road. Something about seeing the Rockets on the Road lets me know everything will be alright.
LOL, I'm not going to argue that point b/c we haven't proven that yet. So far, to me, we haven't shown to be mentally tougher than those 2 teams...they're proven. The Rockets? I think we're getting there, we need more time though.
This is a great win. They have every excuse to lose this game. But they did not give up. Lakes played crappy, I do not know why they have more wins than loss.
