[SFgate.com] McGrady developing chemistry with Yao

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Rockets taking off?
McGrady developing chemistry with Yao
- Janny Hu
Sunday, March 13, 2005

The city known for its humidity and horrendous traffic is having little problem showcasing itself to the sports world. In the past two years, Houston has hosted the Super Bowl and baseball's All-Star Game. Next year, the NBA All-Star Game comes to town.

As the crème de la crème of football, baseball and basketball's elite pass through, the city is waiting for its own teams to become top dog. The Astros nearly did it in October, using a late surge to come within one game of the World Series.

Can the Rockets follow with a similar postseason push?

It sure looked that way at this year's All-Star game, when Houston rode an eight-game winning streak into the break and boasted the only starting teammates in Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.

Then they lost three straight to San Antonio, Seattle and ... Utah?

"Hey, change is tough in this league, I can't stress that enough," Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said in a telephone interview. "We've been tinkering with the team and that threw us out of kilter, and it's taken us some time to come together."

No basketball executive has had a busier year than Dawson, whose Rockets finish a four-game West Coast road trip with a nationally televised game in Sacramento today and a visit to the Arena in Oakland to play the Warriors on Monday night.

Beyond his splashy offseason trade for McGrady and starting power forward Juwan Howard and free-agent signing of Bob Sura, Dawson has overhauled the entire roster in the past 10 months.

The Rockets acquired shooting guard Jon Barry from the Hawks on Dec. 23. Four days later, they picked up guard David Wesley from New Orleans. They also added Mike James and reunited with fan favorite Moochie Norris on the afternoon of the league's trading deadline.

None of those moves were fancy enough to merit much attention outside of Houston, but all were on the mark.

James, whom the Rockets tried to sign in the offseason, has been a terrific addition, especially with guards Sura, Andre Barrett and Charlie Ward all hampered by injuries. James scored in double figures in his first five starts, averaging 18.4 points on 47.4 percent shooting.

His backcourt mate, Wesley, has proved the easiest barometer of the team's improvement. The Rockets have won 23 of 33 games since trading for Wesley, including Friday night's 127-107 trouncing at Phoenix, the team with the league's second-best record.

In that game, Wesley scored 20 points (McGrady had 38 and Yao had 27 to go with his career-high 22 rebounds). Overall, the team's scoring is up by more than 10 points per game since the Wesley trade.

Houston is sixth in the Western Conference playoff race, which is where they were seeded during their 1995 championship season. Hakeem Olajuwon and midseason addition Clyde Drexler formed the crux of that team, and if the Rockets are to make a run this year, their new inside-outside tandem of Yao and McGrady will lead the way.

It was McGrady's unexpected arrival last summer that began all the movement. Houston shipped three-fifths of its starting lineup to Orlando in guards Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and center Kelvin Cato. The Rockets scrambled to replace their spots, then rebuild team chemistry.

The flamboyant Francis served as Yao's protector and took pride in shielding him from distractions. The two led the Rockets back to the playoffs last year and after a first-round loss to the Lakers, envisioned deeper runs to come.

Those now belong to McGrady and Yao.

"We weren't out looking to make a trade, it kind of fell into our lap," Dawson said. "And we said, 'You know, this is something to think about doing. If you could put Yao and Tracy together for 10 or 12 years, you've almost got to do that.' "

Dawson calls their current West Coast swing a "death march," but the Rockets had already defeated Seattle and activated Sura from the injury list before Friday's victory over Phoenix.

McGrady is averaging better than 30 points per game in March and Yao has improved his scoring and shooting percentage for the third year in a row. He is averaging 18.5 points per game on 55 percent shooting and trailed only Shaquille O'Neal (22.6 ppg) in scoring among centers.

It is not clear whether the Rockets are underachieving or overachieving with Yao and McGrady. Yes, they are both All-Stars, but are playing their first season together. The general consensus around the league seems to be: Give them time.

After all, Yao is 24 and McGrady 25.

"It's hard to win in the league and it's hard just to throw a bunch of people out there," Dawson said. "They've got to play together and learn."

E-mail Janny Hu at jhu@sfchronicle.com.