http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/134586870_soni30.html Rockets rise to the occasion By Jayda Evans Seattle Times staff reporter ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Houston’s Kelvin Cato defends Seattle guard Kenny Anderson during the second half. E-mail this article Print this article Search web archive Related stories Game at a glance: Payton is Mr. Sonic, career leader in games Other links Houston-Seattle box score Moochie Norris was the limping wounded. First there was the broken right pinky injured in preseason that still bends two ways before reaching the tip. Then there was the freak left calf strain suffered in warmups before last night's game against the Sonics at KeyArena. "I was just shooting jump shots and it pulled," said Norris, a former Sonic who is now a reserve guard for Houston. "But I wasn't going to sit out this game. They put some heat on it, and I played." The fourth quarter was a suitable tonic for Norris, who shimmied and shook as he scored a critical team-high seven points and pulled down five rebounds to help the Rockets secure an 83-72 win. Guard Steve Francis led Houston with 21 points and six assists. It's the Sonics' third consecutive loss and sixth in their past seven games. The Sonics (9-8) scored just 26 points in the second half. Despite being outscored 32-11 in the third quarter, a season low for the Sonics, Seattle wiggled its way to a 70-62 deficit with 6:36 left. Norris, who came in for starting guard Juaquin Hawkins, hit two long baskets to keep the Sonics from getting any closer. His two free throws with 26 seconds remaining sent the sellout crowd headed for the doors. "I live for the fourth quarter," said Norris, who finished with nine points. "Nothing hurts then, but I know it's going to hurt (today) because I've been playing on it (the calf)." The Sonics were dismal. Guard Gary Payton played his 964th game to become the franchise's all-time leader in games played, but last night's performance probably wouldn't be his pick for a historic marker. Payton was 0 for 6 from the field in the first quarter and finished the game with 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting. He did have 14 assists, and many of those were to reserve guard Desmond Mason. Mason finished with a team-high 19 points. "We didn't shoot the ball well," said forward Rashard Lewis, who scored 18. "We weren't able to knock down the jump shots. I don't know. We're going to have to drive to the basket, but it just wasn't working for us tonight. "There just wasn't no rhythm." Clogging up most of the rhythm was Chinese center Yao Ming. Yao started and finished with just six points, five assists and five rebounds, but his presence altered the Sonics' style of play. He halted Payton's traditional drives to the hoop and kept the Sonics shooting from the outside despite the horrid results from the perimeter. "I thought we did a marvelous job of battling," Francis said. "I thought we did a good job of moving the basketball around, and we went inside-outside with the big fella (Yao)." Francis kick-started the third quarter for the Rockets with a driving layup and never let up. He had 13 points as the Rockets outscored the Sonics 32-11 to take a 68-57 lead. Forward Glen Rice also came alive in the quarter, adding nine points to the run. Both teams were lifeless to start the game. The Rockets shot 35 percent in the opening quarter, which was only slightly better than the Sonics' 33 percent shooting from the field to tie the score at 18 points apiece. Behind 29-26 with 6:56 remaining in the first half, guard Desmond Mason added some life from the bench. With Yao sitting on the bench, Mason scored six points during a 12-0 run to put the Sonics ahead 38-29. Included in the spurt was a Mason steal that he converted into a layup which finally gave the crowd something to cheer. The Sonics closed the half leading 46-36 on 48.8 percent shooting. Mason had 12 points while Lewis had nine. Francis and forward Kenny Thomas both had six points to lead the Rockets in the first half. Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
someone give cato some love too. he was just as much a factor in the middle in regards to blocking/changing shots as ming was tonight. and he was getting tough rebounds in traffic that ming can't quite do yet. cato and ming just shut down the middle tonight and it was beautiful to watch. i still can't believe how much better cato's hands are on defensive rebounds now. he may not catch it all the time on offense but he does a great job of keeping his hands high and then bringing the ball into both hands and holding all, something he has never been able to do before. and ming is starting to show the ability to get the block w/o the body contact which will be huge in the future. if we could get griffin to figure out how to hit a 10 foot jump shot, we could rotate 3 extremely good shot blockers all game and give teams nightmares for 48 minutes. come on griffin, figure it out, you're killing my fantasy team lately.
