Rockets back to old ways — lose badly to Memphis
December 3rd, 2005by John
Yao goes up to throw down a dunk Saturday night in Houston on his way to scoring 29 points, but the Rockets were blown out by Memphis most of the game, losing 90-75 to the Grizzlies. For more photos from the game, click here. by John
SATURDAY, 12/03/05 – I attended my first Rockets game of the season on Saturday night. I rarely use the elevator at Toyota Center to get to the upper level where I usually sit because the elevator can get a little cramped. But tonight I was in between the two escalators I normally take to get to the upper level, and the elevator was right there with the doors open, so I jumped on.
Wouldn’t you know it, on the elevator’s first stop, Rockets’ owner Leslie Alexander got on, along with a woman who I believe is his wife. I figured when I got off, I would say hello or something. When my stop came, Leslie got off the elevator temporarily to make room so the people in the back of the elevator like me could get off.
After I passed through the elevator doors, I said hello to him for just a second, and he and his wife seemed really nice. But a couple of minutes later, I was KICKING myself because I thought MAYBE I could have scored some better seats by telling him real fast, “Hi Leslie, I’m the guy who writes for the Yao Ming Fan Club site, and does it for free. My seats are in the upper deck. Is there a chance I might be able to sit close to where you’re seats are tonight?” Of course, I would do it tongue-in-cheek without any expectations of getting such a gift. But hey, it never hurts to ask, right? You never know: by some stroke of luck and a kind heart, maybe I could have gotten a great seat near the court – maybe even on the floor where he usually sits. After all, it turned out there were plenty of empty seats all around the arena tonight.
But after seeing the Rockets put on one of their worst performances WITH T-Mac this season, maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t ask for that favor and can hope for that same situation to occur again when the Rockets are playing better, because the way the Rockets played on Saturday night, I didn’t miss a thing sitting down low.
The Rockets got rolled Saturday night by the Memphis Grizzlies in one of their most lopsided defeats this season, which is saying a lot considering all the losses they have had so far. They were down by 20+ points most of the game, finished with an abysmal 22 turnovers, and gave up 15 three-pointers on their way to a 90-75 defeat.
In the first quarter, they scored only 13 points on pathetic shooting by everyone, including T-Mac (0-for-6). On defense, they gave up 6 three-pointers in a row. It was unbelievable how Memphis kept hitting those long bombs without any Rocket contesting their shot.
So after the first quarter, Memphis was up 34-13, and they were shooting 68% compared to a dismal 29% for Houston.
Yao got off to a slow start, missing his first four shots, and had problems with Shane Battier, who blocked one of his shots according to the boxscore (I thought it was two) and stole another one as Yao was grabbing a rebound above his head that may have counted as a block.
Pau Gasol also blew by him to score on a reverse dunk in the second quarter. At the 3:34 mark of the quarter, Yao picked up his third foul, but coach Jeff Van Gundy had no option but to leave him in to provide some scoring punch since everyone was shooting horribly, including T-Mac who was 1-for-9 in the first half with 3 points.
Yao ended up playing well the rest of the way, scoring a team-high 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting. So you can’t blame Yao for this loss.
The Rockets followed up their 13-point first quarter with – you guessed it – a 13-point second quarter! At least you can say they are consistent! So it was 47-26 at halftime, Houston’s worst first half this year, and they came only 2 points shy of their franchise-worst mark of scoring 24 points in a first half.
It wasn’t just T-Mac who was shooting miserably. David Wesley was 0-for-2 with zero points. Juwan Howard was 1-for-3 with two points, as was Derek Anderson.
Although Yao got off to a slow start, he did finish the first half with 12 points. Unfortunately, Damon Stoudamire had made 4-of-4 of his three-point attempts, and he led all Memphis players with 12 points at the half.
So while Memphis was shooting 51% by halftime and torching the Rockets on three-pointers (7-for-13), Houston was only 31% and hitting only 1-for-7 from three-point land.
I can only imagine what Van Gundy had to say at halftime in the locker room. One of the things he must have said was something like, “Get out there and practice your shot before the second half begins,” because there were at least five Rocket players taking warmup shots way before any Memphis player had come out of the locker room. They were even shooting shots before a group of little girls from a Houston dance troupe that had performed at halftime had been able to clear the area underneath their basket. That’s how early they were.
The third quarter wasn’t much different, with the Rockets falling behind 58-33 and continuing to turn the ball over. The only exciting thing happening this quarter was the “T-shirt Toss” where fans would scream and yell for a Rockets t-shirt to be thrown their way.
Near the end of the third, one play summed up the haphazard way the Rockets looked on offense. One Rocket (I can’t remember who) threw a hard pass toward the sideline, but instead of it going to a Rocket, it was destined to sail out of bounds for another turnover. But fortunately, it hit a referee before he had time to react and get out of the way. The ball bounced off the ref and was still in play, then Luther Head grabbed it, drove to the hole and scored on a layup to make it 70-50, and he was fouled. But in typical fashion the way the Rockets have been playing, Head missed the free throw. Then on the ensuing Memphis possession, Bobby Jackson hit a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds remaining in the quarter to make it 73-50, and that was basically the ballgame.
In the fourth quarter, Moochie Norris continued to play a lot of minutes and helped spark a 10-4 run to reduce the deficit down to 77-60, but it was too late. Memphis continued to hit shots and make Houston pay for falling behind so far. T-Mac finished with a sub-par 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting, which is alarming. Some of the Houston media analysts thought T-Mac had lost a bit of his elevation in this game.
I’ve said it before, but I think many of the problems the Rockets have had offensively this season result from Van Gundy’s emphasis on getting players who play defense better than offense. Well, if you do that, and those players are getting older (David Wesley, Ryan Bowen, Dikembe Mutombo, etc.), they probably aren’t going to score many points for you. So Van Gundy made his bed; he now has to lie in it.
Another problem the Rockets have had this season, but especially in this game, is the play of Stromile Swift. Now that I have seen him play in person, he is fine when his near the rim and slamming it through. But when he gets the ball on the perimeter, faces up to the basket and makes an offensive move, he doesn’t seem to know what he’s going to do when leaves his feet. He’ll elevate, then put himself in a bad position to make a low-percentage pass or shot. If he shoots, he will badly miss. If he passes, he’ll probably throw the ball away. He did that two separate times in the second half and finished the game with five turnovers. If I had to compare him to anyone, it would be a power forward version of Steve Francis, and that’s not always a compliment (look what the Rockets did with Francis).
Now the Rockets are 4-12 with the worst record of any team in the Western Conference. They obviously have to make some kind of roster moves because the season is slipping away fast, and if they want to have any shot at making the playoffs at all, they need to something.
To get more offensive punch, I wouldn’t be surprised if they sign Latrell Sprewell , who is an available free agent, to a contract. Van Gundy loves Sprewell from his Knick days, and he can’t make them any worse than what they are right now.
To see the boxscore from the game, click here.
To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.