Van Gundy looks to the little guys Smaller lineup is stacking up well against Mavericks By MICHAEL MURPHY Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle RESOURCES ROCKETS Q&A Chronicle writer Jonathan Feigen takes your questions about the Rockets. Send your questions here NBA PLAYOFFS 2005 ROCKETS vs. MAVERICKS Playoffs Schedule * If necessary Rockets lead series, 2-0 • Game 1: Rockets 98, Mavs 86 | Photos | Box • Game 2: Rockets 113, Mavs 111 | Photos | Box • Game 3: Mavs @ Rockets, 8:30 p.m. Thu. | TNT • Game 4: Mavs @ Rockets, 4:30 p.m. Sat. | TNT • Game 5: * Rockets @ Mavs, May 2 • Game 6: * Mavs @ Rockets, May 5 • Game 7: * Rockets @ Mavs, May 7 • NBA Playoffs: Schedule, stats for East, West • Chronicle columnist John P. Lopez: Game 2: T-Mac great in win FAN FORUM: • Post your comments about playoffs HEAR IT NOW: Justice and McClain: Team's stars show up for Rockets in Big D -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TV/Radio: Listings; KILT (610 AM) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROCKETS BY THE NUMBERS • Schedule • Movements • Roster • Depth chart • Chronicle story archive • Live NBA scores at a glance • NBA Playoffs 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE STANDINGS Team W L PCT GB San Antonio 59 23 .720 --- Dallas 58 24 .707 1 Houston 51 31 .622 8 Memphis 45 37 .549 14 New Orleans 18 64 .220 41 As of Apr 21 2005 8:29 a.m. CT There was a time when the Rockets revolutionized the NBA in a big way. Back in the go-go 1980s, when the Lakers' Magic Johnson was gunning the gas pedal on Showtime and Larry Bird was orchestrating the Celtics' precision fast break, the Rockets bucked convention and erected the Twin Towers. That pairing of 7-4 Ralph Sampson and 7-0 Hakeem Olajuwon was a revelation, forcing many teams to adopt the same bigger-is-better approach, with results that were inspired and ludicrous. The Rockets, now many basketball generations removed from their supersized past, are revolutionary but on a smaller scale. Finding what works Rather than match up with the Mavericks, who can throw out a front line with any combination of 7-6 Shawn Bradley, 6-11 Erick Dampier, 7-0 Dirk Nowitzki and 6-10 Keith Van Horn, the Rockets are making Dallas match up with them. How? By going important stretches with what can only be called the incredible shrinking lineup. How about 6-5 Jon Barry at power forward? How about 6-4 Bob Sura or 6-2 Mike James at small forward? It's a group that often looks more like a rec league lineup, but it's a big reason the Rockets take a 2-0 lead into Toyota Center for tonight's Game 3 of the best-of-seven series. "That's what the playoffs are about, find something that works and milk it," said Barry, who knocked down three 3-pointers when Nowitzki didn't rotate out in Monday's 113-111 Game 2 victory. "We know they play some small lineups, and we're able to play either big or small. We've shown that throughout the year. "Whatever's going well is what we're going to do, and we're 2-0 right now, so everything's working pretty well right now." Nowhere was the value of that lineup more evident than in the final 4:56 of Monday's game, when the Rockets went small — surrounding the 7-6 Yao with James, Sura, Barry and Tracy McGrady — and rallied from a 103-97 deficit to sweep the two games at American Airlines Center. For the Rockets, it's all about two of coaching's oldest ideas — creating mismatches and spacing the floor. The former involves forcing the Mavericks' big men to come outside to defend the Rockets, who perform the latter by putting every available outside shooter on the floor. "When we go to the small lineup, it gives us a chance to get out and run more in transition, and it spreads the floor because we put shooters out on the basketball court," McGrady said. "We put four out and one (Yao) in. If they (the Mavericks) want to double-team, then we have shooters spread all around the court." If that means Barry will have to log a few minutes at power forward, so be it. But while the Rockets are forcing Nowitzki to come out and defend Barry on the 3-point line, it also means Barry sometimes finds himself guarding a 7-0 forward with a feathery touch and a scorer's mentality. "They really don't have a post-up game, per se," Barry said. "Dampier doesn't get many looks down low, Dirk hasn't been posting up all that much and Van Horn's not really a post-up player. So while they might be bigger guys, they're really more perimeter-oriented players, so we're able to match up with whoever they have." The irony is they're doing it against the Mavericks, whose former coach, Don Nelson, was considered a genius whose oddball lineups illustrated a touch of madness. And it's not often that people accuse Van Gundy of thinking like Nelson, but that's been the case. A little apprehension Not that it's all good. Going small means rebounds are tougher to get (the Rockets were outrebounded 41-29 in Monday's game), so for a worrier like Van Gundy, having four relatively small guys on the floor is an even bigger cause for fretting. "You're always concerned," Van Gundy said. "They're pounding us on the boards. You're always concerned about downsizing and playing excessively small." But the pluses have outweighed the negatives. Sura knocked down two huge 3-pointers in the final 3:49 Monday, the first shaving a four-point Dallas lead to 105-104 and the second giving the Rockets a 109-107 lead, both on assists from McGrady. That, the Rockets insist, is another key — having superstars such as McGrady and Yao who don't mind giving up the ball to the open shooter. "If we're shooting the ball well and our big guys, our stars, are doing their thing as well as they've been doing it, it makes it easy," guard David Wesley said. "You're shooting wide-open shots and it's just a matter of knocking them down." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3158013
