Suns burn Rockets to extend losing streak to five
November 23rd, 2005by John
Yao and Juwan Howard show their dejection during their loss against the Phoenix Suns, 100-88. The Rockets have now lost five in a row and are 3-9. For more photos from the game, click here. by John
WEDNESDAY, 11/23/05 – It’s really difficult for me to get motivated to write game summaries these days. After watching Houston lose its fifth in a row Wednesday night against Phoenix 100-88, it’s tough to get motivated to write about the worst team in the Western Conference at 3-9.
Not only were the Rockets outscored, they were outshot (45% vs. 41% field goals), were killed from behind the 3-point line (14-7), out-assisted (33-17), turned the ball over more (15-8), out-stolen (10-4), and out-blocked (5-0).
Yao, who only scored 8 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, had the following to say:
“I can’t believe how we’re playing right now. We have a game plan and we know what we need to do and we’re not doing it. I’m a big part of that, too. Time’s running down. There are 70 games left but I think this is a very bad, bad stretch for us.”
Even though Yao only scored two points at halftime and the announcers were cracking on him, I wasn’t mad because he had only played 11 minutes. I was thinking that maybe, as I mentioned in my summary yesterday, he would be fresh in the second half to help the Rockets overcome a relatively ‘small’ 54-46 halftime deficit.
In the third, Yao looked fresh and was more accurate, hitting 2-of-3 shots while the Rockets made a fantastic run to get back into the game. Ryan Bowen hit three consecutive jumpers in the third, and after he hit the third one, he tipped a pass on defense that got intercepted by Luther Head, who then went coast-to-coast and made an incredible crossover and fake to score on a layup to make it 63-63, capping a 15-3 run. That sequence got everyone on their feet in Toyota Center, and was probably the highlight of the game.
But then Phoenix’s James Jones countered by hitting two three-pointers to make it 69-63, and the Suns continued their run to make it 75-65 after three quarters.
Derek Anderson hit a jumper to close it to 84-77 with 7:11 remaining, but then the Suns rattled off 9 points in a row to close out the win, hitting four 3-point daggers in the quarter to stab them in the heart.
Unfortunately, Yao only took two shots in the fourth quarter (and made one), so he never had a chance to dominate, mainly because he couldn’t get the ball (sound familiar?). As a result, he only finished with 8 points and 8 rebounds.
I know everyone will say Yao had a terrible game, but his shooting percentage wasn’t that bad (3-for-7). The problem was (surprise, surprise) he just didn’t take that many shots! I don’t know if it was because of the Rockets guards’ inability to feed him in the post or what. The one thing I’m noticing is that Yao is not getting the ball while he is moving toward the hole like he used to get. Part of that is because T-Mac isn’t there to play pick-and-roll with him. But can’t someone else pass him the ball while he’s moving toward the basket?!
The only other highlights for the Rockets statistically was a second solid game from Derek Anderson (23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, 9 rebounds, 4 assists), which is about time! And Luther Head was solid with 15 points (4-of-8 three-pointers, 10 rebounds 4 assists). Stromile Swift finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds. And Ryan Bowen had 8 points on 4-of-9 shooting. With statistics like that, the Rockets were only one player away from giving them a better chance of winning if only that one player had a big game. Yao had the potential to be that person, but the touches were inexplicably not there. I think the buck stops at coach Jeff Van Gundy.
To see the boxscore from the game, click here.
To read the Houston Chronicle’s story of the game, click here.