USA Today: McHale has Rockets in prime position late in season

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/bask...Hale-has-Rockets-in-prime-position/54119740/1

For those too lazy to click the link:
The Rockets enter the week sixth in the Western Conference. Lowry, who had missed 15 games with a bacterial infection, finished with one point and seven assists in 18 minutes in the Rockets' 104-87 win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.

First-year coach Kevin McHale has them one game above the Denver Nuggets (in eighth) and just 3½ games behind the No. 3 Los Angeles Lakers. He's put in a Coach-of-the-Year effort as the Rockets are on the verge of making the playoffs for the first time in three years.

"We're a workmanlike group. We don't have the type of players where we're going to say, 'We're going to ride this guy or give the ball to this guy in this spot' or who's going to take 20 shots a night," McHale said. "We're pretty much a team comprised of a bunch of good basketball players that when they play together they play very well."

In 10 remaining games, the Rockets are at the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, have home games vs. the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns and back-to-backs with the Denver Nuggets. They also have two meetings left vs. the New Orleans Hornets and one vs. the Golden State Warriors.

The Rockets have overcome a botched trade before the season in having to take back shooting guard Kevin Martin and power forward Luis Scola. Lowry, who arguably should've been an All-Star for the first time this season, had been out since March 7. Martin, the team's leading scorer at 17.1 per game, has been out since March 11 because of a right shoulder strain.

Chandler Parsons, a rookie second-round draft pick, has made 48 starts at small forward. Goran Dragic has stepped in for Lowry. Courtney Lee has performed well in Martin's absence. The Rockets acquired center Marcus Camby in a trade last month, and he's now starting.

In Sunday's win vs. the Kings, the Rockets had six players in double figures, led by Lee's game-high 25 points.

Going into the game, Houston had nine players averaging 7.6 points per game or better. Second-year forward Patrick Patterson was slowed early because offseason surgery to remove bone spurs from his right ankle and didn't get off to a good start, but he's improving.

Patterson garnered interest from several teams leading up to the March 15 trade deadline. The Milwaukee Bucks inquired before landing forward Ekpe Udoh in a trade with the Golden State Warriors. The Hornets strongly considered selecting Patterson in the 2010 draft, but took center Cole Aldrich instead and traded him on draft night for the rights to forward Quincy Pondexter.

Patterson had 10 points and 10 rebounds in Sunday's win.

"He needs a big summer with a lot of individual work," says McHale, who has yet to work extensively with his post players because of the 149-day lockout and truncated training camp. "He really knows how to play. He's unbelievably intelligent, a great team defender. He needs to tighten up his individual game where he really can make that 15-foot to 17-foot jump shot and then get his post game down where he becomes a two-way type of offensive player."

A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, McHale has called on his personal experience to guide the Rockets. They've beaten the Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers since March 30. They lost to the Indiana Pacers by two points in that stretch. The Rockets are the only team to beat the Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Bulls on their home courts.

Superstars are nice to have, but they're not required to win if players complement each other.

"I learned a long time ago," says McHale, who won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics. "It's not how good you are. It's how good you make your teammates."


Thoughts?