Chron: Toughness eludes Rockets

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/rox/3070442

March 5, 2005, 11:54PM

Toughness eludes Rockets
Critical attribute that's possessed by the best teams has yet to develop
By JONATHAN FEIGEN

"Tough" is a lot of things. Mostly, tough is tough to define, easy to recognize.


There's tough enough to take a punch or throw one. There's tough as in hard or as in difficult.

Tough can be strict, inflexible and uncompromising. It can be durable or resilient. It can be steadfast, tireless and persistent.

To the Rockets, it is about all those qualities. Pick an image of tough. The best teams have it. There is a toughness that is obvious when it is needed, and the Rockets have spent the season trying to develop that toughness.

A week ago in Toyota Center, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy called out his team for its lack of toughness. A week and another fourth-quarter collapse later, the Rockets seem to know what he meant.


Motivation factor
"We've got to be tougher," guard David Wesley said. "When it comes down the stretch of games, step our game up. Be more mentally tough. Be more physically tough. Every sense of the word 'tough,' we've got to be that.

"You can motivate guys to play harder, play tougher. Ultimately, that's something either you have to possess, or some of the guys on the team can instill that in you by playing tougher."

For some tough guys, it's almost like being in a fight. But since the All-Star break, when punched, rather than fight back, the Rockets have gone down.


Finding an answer
The Rockets believe that for them tough will be about answering challenges. It's not about being strong inside, but being stronger than the other guy. More than that, when teams have increased their intensity down the stretch, it will be about remaining tough enough to answer.

"We can be tough. I think we have been at times," guard Jon Barry said. "But the way the fourth quarters have gone since we got back from the All-Star break, we haven't shown much toughness at all, that's for sure.

"That's what we lacked. When things have gotten tough, instead of stepping up and saying we'll do something about it, we go the opposite way and allow it to happen to us. That's how we've played in the last four fourth quarters in the games we lost. When the ante is raised, we're out. We have to be all-in."

But if a more tangible measure is needed, the sudden slump of the Rockets' rebounding has been as obvious as it has been damaging. Before the All-Star break, the Rockets led the NBA in the percentage of defensive rebounds they control per game. Since the break, they have lost four of five games and have allowed an average of 14.4 offensive rebounds and 12.6 second-chance points per game.

Juwan Howard, whose rebounding helped key the eight-game winning streak, blamed himself for the rebounding slump since. He averaged 8.5 rebounds in the winning streak; 5.2 since.

"Effort, energy and having the aggressive tenacity to go after the ball — we haven't done that," Howard said. "I look at myself in the mirror and say I have to do a much better job than I've been doing in the last few games. I'm very disappointed in myself and also as a team we're disappointed in the fact that we haven't been rebounding. Statistics show that when we rebound, we win ballgames."

The Rockets are 25-5 when outrebounding opponents. But since the All-Star break, they haven't outrebounded anybody.

"Rebounding is the key," center Dikembe Mutombo said. "We have to make that extra effort. We have given up a lot of second shots. We just have to hit — don't hit nobody — but we have to hit, box-out and rebound."


Do what's necessary
They have to be, in a word, tougher. A week ago, Van Gundy said: "I love my team. I hate the (level of) toughness we're playing with."

A week later, it has become clear what kind of toughness he meant. Every kind.

"It's physical, mental, it's blocking out, taking contact," Van Gundy said. "You don't have to be a thug. You just have to want to win. If you want to win, you'll do what's necessary, and those things are necessary to win."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com