[Chron] Summing up Rockets in a word: Medic!

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Summing up Rockets in a word: Medic!

By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

They've got ice packs and elastic bandages and stitches. They've got dead legs and flat shots.


Give the Rockets credit for refusing to buy into a single excuse even when they're offered. And legitimate.

"We can't pity ourselves," coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We've got guys hurt? So what? We've got enough to win with."

Maybe.

Van Gundy is running short on sympathy after hacking and wheezing his way through Sunday night's 91-78 loss to Phoenix.

He could use two weeks of R&R instead of a four-game, seven-day trip through the NBA's Western Conference. That trip begins Tuesday at Golden State.

All of a sudden, the walls are closing in on these unpredictable Rockets. With eight games remaining, they have a five-game cushion on Minnesota, the team pursuing the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff spot.


Miss-and-miss approach
Yet the shots aren't falling, and the psyche is starting to notice. The Rockets had a second straight terrible shooting night Sunday, making just 34 percent of their field-goal attempts. They were 5-for-23 from 3-point land.

Worse than the misses is the uncertainty that has crept into their shot selection. At one point, Van Gundy virtually ordered Ryan Bowen to stop passing up open jumpers.

To Van Gundy, the problem is larger than a shooting slump. It goes back to Friday's dismal loss to New Orleans. Even as he prepared for the Suns on Sunday, he was bothered by what he saw as a lack off effort against the Hornets on Friday.

"I don't know what that loss to New Orleans is going to cost us," Van Gundy said. "But it'll cost us something. It might be a playoff spot. It may be respect with our fans. But it will cost us something. And it's not the first time. We've done it several times.

"The challenge now is mental. That's what happens when you don't put enough into one night and then you don't make your shots."


Make no assumptions
Don't assume anything about these Rockets. Just when you think they're capable of doing something special, they get swept by the Charlotte Bobcats. And just when you think they're in trouble, they go unbeaten on a road trip to Seattle, Phoenix, Sacramento and Golden State.

"There are nights when it's just not important enough to us," Van Gundy said. "I've said it a bunch of times this season: I love this team as much as any I've ever been around, but I hate its lack of mental toughness."

Mental toughness was not the issue against Phoenix. The Rockets missed shots, got careless with the ball and at times did all the things that infuriate their coach.

If he keeps losing bodies, Van Gundy won't have to worry about concentration. It won't matter.

With Juwan Howard already sidelined with a knee injury, the Rockets lost Jon Barry to a back injury shortly before tipoff.

Then there was Yao Ming limping down the floor in the fourth quarter after reinjuring the calf muscle that sidelined him Friday. And there was Tracy McGrady playing with a heavily wrapped right knee. Bob Sura's fragile back will be an ongoing injury.

The Rockets say none of this stuff matters. They say it's still about running their plays and staying awake defensively.

"You play the first 60 games, then you play these last 20, and you're fighting every night to have the right approach," guard David Wesley said. "Once you get in the playoffs, you get rejuvenated. But it gets tough in these final weeks. What we've got to do is work and grind and find a way to win games."

McGrady was 6-for-21 from the field, including 0-for-5 from behind the 3-point line. Both knees are screaming, and even though he'll continue to play, the grimace on McGrady's face in the second half spoke volumes about his condition.

Then there's Yao. He went down hard twice in the fourth quarter and limped through the final few minutes. After the game, he had a cut on his chin stitched up.

If Yao's chin is sore Tuesday, he may forget how badly his calf is feeling.

"It's time to lay it all on the line," Sura said.

At this point, the line is to the doctor's office.

 

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Suns aren't burned twice

Rockets can't handle Phoenix in charged rematch

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The words ached as much as Tracy McGrady's knees.

Scoring had always come so easily to McGrady. It appeared effortless, like flowing water. And the Rockets had come to score nearly as reliably and artfully. It was, guard Mike James remembered, "a thing of beauty."

But weeks after the Rockets had rolled through Phoenix, the shots clanged.

The offense had grown sloppy and sluggish. Bodies ached.

The Suns smacked the Rockets 91-78 on Sunday at Toyota Center, dropping them to just two games ahead of seventh-place and streaking Denver. To McGrady, who felt the pain in his knees and surveyed the damage to the Rockets' offense, simply putting the ball in the basket never seemed more of a chore.

"I feel like I'm about 40 years old," McGrady, 25, said. "I have tendinitis in both of my knees, and it's really painful. It's hard to run and to explode, to do what I do on the basketball court. It's really bothering me right now. It's killing me."

But it was more than McGrady's knees — or Yao Ming's sore right calf or Jon Barry's back spasms — that proved problematic. They merely added injury to insult.

After making a season-worst 30.8 percent of their shots in a loss Friday to the Hornets, the Rockets got even better shots Sunday, but made just 34 percent. McGrady, who hit just six of 21 attempts and missed all five of his 3s, believed his team followed his misfiring lead.

"I think when my shots are falling, it seems everybody else is rolling," McGrady said. "When my shots are falling and we have one of those nights other guys are off, I think I do a great job putting those guys in position they can score as well. When my shots are not falling, it seems like we all shoot bad."

They all did, other than Ryan Bowen, who carried a third-quarter flurry to a season-high 14 points, and Yao Ming, who made nine of 16 shots for 19.

But the Suns were happy to leave Bowen open to help on Yao and McGrady. And the defensive blitz on the Rockets' top scorers — "It was like a swarm of bees," McGrady said — left open shooters who were unable to make shots.

Rockets guards Bob Sura, David Wesley and James combined to make just 10 of 41 shots.

"That's an awful defensive team," Wesley said. "We just missed good shots. We're just not shooting the ball well. You could have a good defensive team, a bad defensive team in here tonight, that's the way we're playing right now. We got to find a way to get it together, to shoot the ball better, shoot with confidence."

That confidence has crashed. In their past two games, the Rockets have averaged just 75.5 points. They haven't made 30 percent of their 3-point attempts in six games, making just 21.7 percent Sunday. When the shots missed, the Rockets became hesitant and forced drives, leading to turnovers.

"It's the turnovers that are killing us right now," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We're going down to try to tie, turn it over, they score, we have another outlet, turnover.

"We've got to have belief and faith for the results (to) turn around. The ball's not going to go in worrying about it going in. You've got to shoot with confidence before you'll see results. I don't want anybody hesitating, and we were hesitating on some. We can't become gun shy now."

The Rockets never found a consistent outside touch. McGrady nailed a jumper, but then did not take another in the remaining 4 1/2 minutes of the third quarter. Sura hit a 3-pointer, but then had consecutive turnovers and missed on a drive. Wesley hit a jumper that tied the score with 1:15 left in the third quarter, but then missed an open jumper and a 3.

The Suns made the most of that last minute, with Shawn Marion scoring on a drive and hitting a 3-pointer before Steven Hunter slammed in a rebound for a 69-62 Suns lead.

The Rockets made just one of their next six shots, and the Suns pulled away.

"The challenge right now is mentally," Van Gundy said. "That's what happens when you don't put enough into it like we did (against) New Orleans and then we don't shoot it well again and self-doubt creeps in. We don't have any room for self-doubt. We don't have time for it."

But there is time enough to turn it around. But everything has become difficult, even for those who had grown accustomed to making it seem so easy.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com


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Rockets Summary

Missing Barry

Rockets guard Jon Barry suffered a back spasm while stretching before Sunday's game and was forced to the miss the game, the first he has skipped because of injury this season.

"It's just spasms now," Rockets trainer Keith Jones said. "He was bending over, stretching, and just went down."


Yao feeling fine
Rockets center Yao Ming returned after missing Friday's game with a deep bruise in his right calf.

"I'm fine now," Yao said. "My calf was very swollen. I had a lot of fluid in there. I took an MRI. There was just a lot of water in there.

"I was very worried, but it's OK now. Our trainer ( Keith Jones) did the best job. I do feel better, much better."

Yao bruised his calf against the Suns on March 11, but the fluid buildup on the last road trip threatened to cause greater damage.

But watching the Rockets lose to the Hornets might have been more painful.

"Sometimes it happens like that," Yao said. "Nobody can put the ball in the hole. I just think Dikembe ( Mutombo) should have gotten more rebounds than 15 because there was a lot of misses."

Told of Yao's comment, Mutombo could have shot back that he has had 15 rebounds twice in a game since the last time Yao did.

Instead, he said, "I agree with that.

"I looked at the tape today. I didn't position myself to get offensive rebounds as I did against Miami. There was a frustration in my mind about the fact we were missing a lot of shots. You have to ask yourself a question: Why are we shooting like this? I was able to get myself going in the second half."


Game's the same
When approached regarding the notion that the Suns' strengths somehow would not translate into playoff basketball, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said there is nothing about playoff basketball that is so different from regular-season basketball.

"It depends how well they do what they do," Van Gundy said. "It's not going to be their style that works or doesn't work. If they get beat it's because they got beat by a better team, a team that plays better.

"It has nothing to do with their style. The teams that aren't in, the teams that are behind them like us, we're the ones that have flaws."

Van Gundy would not reveal his team's flaws, but said they would be as much of an issue in the playoffs as they've been in the regular season.


Press row view
Teams will dare the Rockets to shoot. The Rockets know that. Their next four opponents, the Warriors, Lakers, Suns and Sonics, will swarm Yao Ming, help on Tracy McGrady and dare the Rockets guards to shoot.

They should love this. They should want this. This might be wise for those teams, but open shots eventually break shooting slumps. The Rockets just need to stay in the games long enough or find other ways to win until the shots start falling.


Inside the numbers
• 41 — Phoenix points in the first half, a season low.
• 10 — Phoenix points in the second quarter, a season low and tied for the fewest in the second quarter this season against the Rockets.
• 7 — Rockets free throws, the team's fewest this season.


• 10 — Rockets free-throw attempts, the team's fewest this season.



Did you know?
The Rockets have failed to reach 80 points 11 times this season, including the past two games against teams allowing 103.5 and 95.4 points, respectively.

 

It will take a lot longer than a few games for their bodies to heal, the only solution is the off season.

A few games here and there might lessen the impact of these injuries, but once they start playing again, these injuries will start nagging on them again.

The real problem at this point is that there are no players on our team that don't fit the following: Old and/or fatigues; injured and hubbled. Except for may be Spoon, everyone else I think fits under one of those descriptions.