Hornets sting Houston
February 3rd, 2007by John
If anyone had any thoughts the Rockets don’t need Yao because of how well the they have been playing lately, all they need to do to understand how wrong they are is look at the Rockets’ 87-74 loss to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets Saturday night. That’s the 20-26 Hornets, the same team that had lost 11 of their last 12 road games, and is the league’s lowest scoring team.
Remember that loss to Denver five weeks ago that gave the Rockets a dose of reality? That’s nothing compared to this loss.
It was an ugly offensive showing for Houston. They scored only 15 points in the first quarter, a season low, as well as 30 points in the first half, another season low. By the third quarter, Houston was shooting only 32%.
This game also showed just how much the Rockets might need Rafer Alston in order to win, a scary proposition since Alston only shoots 36.9%. But after he got into some tough talk with Desmond Mason for hammering T-Mac on a layup attempt in the first quarter, both he and Mason were thrown out.
I didn’t really think it would affect the Rockets’ offense too much since Luther Head is a capable backup point guard and T-Mac is still very adept and finding the open man.
I actually had a little bit of respect for Alston since he didn’t back down on Mason, and wasn’t going to let his superstar teammate get assaulted like that without hearing about it. I’m glad somebody did.
Ironically, former Rocket Mike James showed the same fire in that Mavericks playoff series a couple of years ago. Van Gundy wasn’t too pleased with James losing his cool about the refs blowing several calls in a crucial Game 7, and even though the game had long been decided in a blowout loss. That off-season, James was traded for Alston. So should we expect another trade of the latest rendition of a Houston hothead for someone more ‘composed,’ like Seattle’s Earl Watson?
I doubt it. Alston has been playing better lately, even with the poor shooting, racking up all kinds of assists and turning the ball over very little in comparison. And although I’m sure Van Gundy will be tough on Alston for getting kicked out of this game, the loss of continuity would be too damaging to the offense.
Without Alston, the Rockets’ offense bogged down, even with T-Mac having shaken off the pain in his left wrist following the hard foul by Mason. Repeatedly the Rockets settled for 3-pointers, but hit very few of them (4-of-20 through the 3rd quarter). Live by the three, die by the three.
Meanwhile, the Hornets weren’t doing much better offensively, only leading 33-30 at halftime. But in the 3rd quarter they started hitting their shots, and led by 18 points at one point late in the third quarter, but thanks to a Bonzi Wells three-point play and a very long T-Mac 3-pointer at the third quarter buzzer, the Rockets cut the deficit to 14 points, 63-49, heading into the third quarter.
But the Rockets couldn’t close the gap to start the fourth quarter, so in a last desperate attempt, Van Gundy said enough is enough with Juwan Howard and Chuck Hayes, and put in seldom-used Steve Novak and Scott Padgett. I applaud the attempt to mix things up, but it didn’t work.
Novak and Padgett really didn’t do anything, and on one Hornet possession, Novak got mixed up on defense and left Jannero Pargo open for a 3-pointer to push the lead up to 70-51. Van Gundy was visibly upset that Pargo was left so wide open, called a timeout, and pulled Novak out.
The Rockets ended up scoring their lowest number of points for the season (74). They were out-rebounded 49-36, and the Rocket starters were outscored by the Hornet starters 49-29.
The only bright spot was Bonzi Wells providing some low-post scoring, scoring 13 points (8 in the fourth) to give them a small chance to come back. But without Yao being the go-to guy when T-Mac couldn’t really take over (7-of-16 for 18 points, well below his 29 ppg over the last 17 games), all Rocket fans were reminded how much they missed the Big Man once the Rockets’ shooting confidence plummeted.