Yao Ming prepares to throw one down in Los Angeles Tuesday night in a crazy game the Rockets won 95-93 to start the new season 1-0. Yao scored 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds in the victory. Click here to see more photos from the game.

The Rockets had a collapse at the end of their season-opening game against the Lakers on Tuesday night that was too reminiscent of their Game 7 implosion in the playoffs last season against Utah.

Many of the same players involved in blowing that lead against Utah, like Rafer Alston and Tracy McGrady, were the same culprits this time around –– but this time they blew an even bigger lead: a 12-point lead with 1:37 remaining.

Let’s look more closely into the mistakes that Alston and McGrady made that could have led to another disaster.

With 24 seconds remaining in the game and the Rockets holding a two-point lead, Alston got trapped in the corner by two defenders (a basketball fundamentals no-no) and tried to pass the ball through the double-team to Shane Battier. But the pass was easily tipped, which led directly to a Derek Fisher two-pointer on the other end that tied the game with 13 seconds remaining. If Fisher hadn’t had his foot on the 3-point line, it would have given the Lakers a 93-92 lead. I couldn’t believe the Rockets were so lucky at that point when everything else had gone wrong.

But thanks to a prayer of a 3-pointer by Battier with 2.5 seconds remaining – after shooting two airballs before that attempt – the Rockets were saved from having their fans question their heart in closing out another game in crunch time.

Alston wasn’t all bad. He actually hit two big shots earlier in the fourth quarter when the Rockets were building the 12-point lead they would later relinquish. One shot was a three-pointer with 5:05 remaining that gave them an 82-74 lead. It was one of those shots where you mutter to yourself while he’s hoisting it: NO, NO, NO, NO, YES!! That would be Alston’s only field goal on a night where he finished 1-of-5 from 3-point range.

Alston’s other points came with 3:11 remaining when he took the ball strong to the hole on a crazy drive with the shot clock about to expire, and was lucky enough to be bailed out on a called foul. Alston hit both free throws to make it 86-78. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Alston knocking the ball away from Kobe Bryant as time expired, right after Bryant intentionally missed a free throw to create an opportunity to tie the score.

There was another Rocket who could have been considered a goat if they had lost this game. With 35 seconds remaining and the Rockets holding a 92-88 lead, they could have put the game away if Mike James had hit 1 or 2 free throws. But he missed both!

It was too bad James missed those, because before the Rockets’ collapse, he had been fantastic. In my book, he would have been the hero of the game since he helped the Rockets get out of a first half hole by sparking Houston’s sluggish offense when they really needed it. James came off the bench late in the first quarter and scored 11 points in the quarter, including 3-of-4 three-pointers to help them take a double-digit lead. He finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting.

One more potential goat, if they had lost, would have been Chuck Hayes. You may remember after the Game 7 collapse against Utah, I analyzed every play of that game and found that Hayes’ defense was a big factor in that loss, and has forever put him under my microscope. Wouldn’t you know it, he showed poor defense late in the fourth quarter. For example…

With 4:13 remaining, he doubled Derek Fisher, who had the ball near the free throw line area. That left Hayes’ man, Ronny Turiaf, wide open for a dunk with an assist from Fisher. Then on the very next play, Hayes left Luke Walton wide open for a three-point attempt that could have cut the Laker deficit to 3 points. Luckily for Hayes, Walton’s shot didn’t fall.

But keep an eye on Hayes’ defense for the rest of the season. I think it will come back to bite the Rockets, and soon. He’s active on the offensive glass, but he just seems to lollygag on defense. Is he overrated? We’ll see.

Let’s not forget about the greatness of Yao Ming from this game. Before the Rockets’ late-game collapse, he was clutch in the fourth quarter by scoring 3 buckets. The game predictably became a half-court game in the fourth quarter which stunted the Rockets’ offense significantly. Yao stopped the bleeding by hitting a fallaway jumper to make it 79-69 with 6:19 remaining. A few minutes later, he dropped a nice hook shot in the middle of the lane after getting a nice feed from Alston to make it 90-80 with 2:14 left.

Then about 20 seconds later, he hit a sweet turnaround baseline jumper with 1:56 remaining that made it 92-80. That provoked TNT analyst Doug Collins to remark:

“He’s got a soft shooting touch. When is the last time you seen a big man like that with that soft shooting touch, just turns and…that ball didn’t even come close to hitting the rim. It hit nothing but the bottom of the net. It looks like it’s light out for the Lakers.”

Yao finished with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, was 7-of-8 from the free throw line, and grabbed 12 rebounds. Not a bad way to start off the season with a double-double.

McGrady was Jekyll and Hyde. He started off slow by going 1-for-6 in the game in the first quarter, and 3-of-9 in the first half. He started to heat up in the third quarter by making 6-of-10 shots for 14 points.

I was thinking, okay, the slow start is fine. Sometimes McGrady starts off sluggish, but he ultimately gets his rhythm. The problem was that he started falling in love with the 3-pointer way too much, and missed three in the second half and went 0-for-4 from beyond the arc overall. That’s one thing about McGrady that drives me crazy. When he starts feeling it, he continues to shoot 3-pointers that are not his strong suit. There are just too many good shooters on the team now for him to jack up those stupid shots.

On top of that, on two possessions in a row in the fourth quarter, McGrady mishandled the ball resulting in turnovers that helped the Lakers get back into the game. He also fouled Kobe Bryant foolishly with 4:43 remaining when the Lakers were in the penalty and Bryant was just dribbling the ball. Think, McGrady, think! Basketball IQ!

But other than those brain farts, McGrady showed this new offense doesn’t need to rely on him handling the ball all the time, which should really help his stamina late in games. McGrady scored a team-high 30 points on 10-of-20 field goals, and hit 10-of-12 from the line.

Kudos should also go to the Rockets’ defense, holding the Lakers to 42% shooting. Kobe scored 45 points, but he shot 13-of-32 from the field and had 5 turnovers.

The hero of the game, though, was Battier. He was abysmal in the first half, making only 2-of-7 shots. But when the game was on the line, he put all of that – and two airballs preceding it – behind him by hitting a long 3-pointer that left the Rockets with their first opening season road victory in 8 tries and 22 years.

Since this game started so late, went long, and it’s getting very late, I’m going to call it a night for now. But I have more to say about this game, so check back later on Wednesday for more of my thoughts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 2:43 am and is filed under vs. LA Lakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.