Rockets win season opener; Yao records double-double
November 2nd, 2005by John
Yao and his teammates crack up before the start of their season opener against Sacramento after Jon Barry made fun of coach Jeff Van Gundy to the entire Toyota Center crowd. To read more about Barry’s comment, please read below. In the game, Yao scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a 98-89 victory. For more photos from the game, click here. by John
WEDNESDAY, 11/2/05 – The “special” potential (a term used a lot by Rocket players lately) that the Rockets hold entering this season was thankfully seen on Wednesday night in Opening Night against Sacramento at Toyota Center. Sure, the Kings got blown out in New Orleans the previous night, but that made a pretty talented team even more dangerous. The Rockets started off slow, but special players and plays helped them pull away in the second half and win 98-89.
Yao lived up to all expectations with a dynamite double-double: 22 points (10-of-16 shooting), 10 rebounds, and 4 assists. He followed the trend from previous years by getting into foul trouble, limiting him to just 25 minutes of action. But some of the fouls were questionable, which I’ll explain in more detail below.
T-Mac got of to a slow start, but ended up scoring 23 points (9-of-21 shooting, only 3-of-7 from the free throw line), grabbing 5 boards, and doling out 4 assists.
But the player of the game, and the only other Rocket who scored in double-figures, was 13-year veteran reserve Jon Barry. It was Barry who kicked off the new season before the game by addressing the crowd, and imploring the fans to do what they did with the Houston Astros’ recent success and get ready for the “Rocket Ride.”
Even more interesting was Barry telling the crowd, “I hope you are as optimistic and excited as our coach,” an obvious jab at Mr. Pessimism — Jeff Van Gundy. When Barry joined the pre-game huddle on the sideline a few moments later, you could see lots of chuckles from almost all the Houston coaches and players on the joke Barry had pulled.
It was all smiles and giggles for Barry the rest of the way as he came within one point from equaling his career high, hitting an incredible 8-of-10 from the field for 24 points. It’s hard to believe that Barry announced a few months ago that this would be his final season. At this rate, he’ll want to play into 2007. As long as he makes up for that awful Game 7 he had against the Mavericks in that 40-point loss during the playoffs last season, I’ll be happy.
Here’s a recap of how the game went:
1st quarter:
Yao took the first shot of the game, a baseline jumper, and swished it to give Houston a 2-0 lead. He then hit a hook shot in the lane to make it 4-2, but the lead didn’t last long as the Kings went on a 9-2 run to lead 13-6.
In the first four minutes of the game, Yao picked up two personal fouls. However, his second foul was an unlucky break because he had great position as Brad Miller piled into him on a drive toward the basket, but Yao was unfortunate enough to be standing inside the circle to get called for the blocking foul.
So as he has done many times before when Yao has gotten into foul trouble, Van Gundy had to replace Yao relatively early, but not with Dikembe Mutombo as he did many times last year, but with Stromile Swift instead. So you had Juwan Howard at power forward (who started at the position), and Swift at center.
Within a few moments, Stro’ was able to display why the Rockets pursued him so heavily during the off-season. On one play, he drove to the basket from the top of the key for an amazing two-handed slam dunk and was fouled for the three-point play. A few minutes later, he made a spin move on the baseline to whip around a defender, then from underneath the backboard went up and forced it in off the glass with the left hand. Amazing stuff.
By watching how gingerly T-Mac was walking and his facial expressions, he was obviously still having knee pain, not only because of tendinitis, but also because of bumping knees with Dikembe in practice on Tuesday. As a result, T-Mac only scored 4 points in the first quarter, making only 1-of-4 shots from the field and 1-of-4 from the free throw line.
But by the end of the first quarter, Swift had also picked up two fouls, and the Rockets couldn’t stop the Kings, who went on a 6-1 run to end the first quarter and force the Rockets into a 27-18 deficit. Yao had four points on a jumper and a hook shot.
2nd quarter:
Yao was able to get payback on Miller by drawing a charging foul on him at the beginning of the second quarter. And when Yao battled for position to grab an offensive rebound with about 8 minutes remaining in the second quarter and he slammed it home, the Rockets had tied the game at 31-31. It was at that time you could say Yao was dominating, scoring 10 points in less than 8 minutes of playing time.
At the 5:50 mark, Yao picked up his first block of the season that led to a layup by Jon Barry to give the Rockets a 36-34 lead. Highlight reel material.
Yao picked up his third foul with about 1 ½ minutes remaining in the second quarter with the Rockets trailing 45-41 at the time, and the Kings completed a 10-5 run at the end of the quarter to lead 49-46 at halftime. Although he started off slow, T-Mac had 12 points heading into intermission, Yao had 11, and Jon Barry had 12. Because of Barry’s contribution, the Rockets bench had outscored the Kings’ bench 18-2.
3rd quarter:
Yao got off to a hot start at the beginning of the third, scoring 5 points and grabbing 4 rebounds in the first 3 minutes, and the Rockets went on a 13-4 run to take a 59-53 lead.
But then Yao picked up a ticky-tack foul, his fourth, while guarding Brad Miller with 6:14 remaining. Immediately Mutombo entered the game for the first time, and proceeded in the next Sacramento possession to alter a shot, then block the follow-up shot which resulted in a beautiful fast break and slam dunk by T-Mac, giving the Rockets a 61-53 lead. The Houston fans were loving the fact that Dikembe had decided to return for one more season. He’s definitely a crowd favorite, and deservedly so with the impact he has on the boards and in blocking shots.
Then a few minutes later, Derek Anderson threw a pass from the 3-point line over Brad Miller’s head to Dikembe, who was standing next to the rim, and Deke laid it in for the score! When is the last time you saw an entry pass like that from a Houston guard?
Sacramento hit a cold spell in the third quarter, making only two of their first 18 shots, and finished 6-of-24 for the quarter. That’s when Houston pulled away, leading at the end of the the third 72-65 and outscoring Sacramento 26-16. Houston wasn’t shooting that great – 41.5% — but Sacramento was shooting worse: 39.1%.
4th quarter:
At the 10:26 mark of the quarter, Yao threw a nice bounce pass to Jon Barry cutting down the lane, and Barry laid it in for a sweet layup giving the Rockets a 75-67 lead.
Yao then connected with Barry again by dishing a great pass to JB, who was standing behind the three-point line and drilled a trey at the 9:10 mark to make it 78-67.
Yao picked up his fifth foul on Brad Miller at the 8:36 mark with the Rockets leading 78-69, but he was able to stay foul-free the rest of the game.
The Rockets took their biggest lead of the game at 83-71 when T-Mac hit a three-pointer with a little over 6 minutes remaining. But right when you thought the Rockets had socked this game away, Sacramento went on a 6-0 run to make it 85-79.
But Yao hit a jump hook from the right baseline to create more breathing room at 87-79. Sacramento came right back to make it 87-81, but then Yao responded with another clutch shot, hitting a jumper over Miller on the left baseline with 3:20 remaining.
Yao then hit his third shot in a row with 2:49 remaining by elevating over Miller on the right side of the lane to make it 91-81. As great as Miller is offensively (21 points), he couldn’t match up with Yao defensively. On second thought, not many people can.
Holding a 95-87 lead with about a minute remaining, Yao threw another quick pass from the post to Rafer Alston, who nailed a three-pointer to ice the game at 98-87. So although he had his double-double, Yao really deserves credit for doling out 4 assists with very accurate passes. The Rockets went on to win 98-89.
As great as Yao was with his all-around great game, the star of this game was Barry, who probably made the Kings wish they had never let him go when he played in Sac-Town from 1998-2000. Houston is glad to have him for the Rocket Ride of 2005.
To see the boxscore from the game, click here.