Yao Ming goes up for a shot against the L.A. Lakers Wednesday night. Yao had 26 points and 13 rebounds, but it was an off-night for him since he made only 6-of-18 field goals, and uncharacteristically missed 6 free throws (one was missed intentionally). The Rockets had their chances in the end to win the game, but couldn’t make shots down the stretch in a 93-90 loss.

This is probably going to be short since many of you in the U.S. probably saw the game on ESPN Wednesday night, it’s late, and Tuesday night’s loss against the Memphis Grizzlies compelled me to write a longer post than normal that kept me up fairly late Tuesday night.

Wednesday night’s game against the Lakers had so much drama that it could take me hours to recap it, but I’ll try to boil down my key observations for you.

As I’m sure you heard, Tracy McGrady injured his elbow, and as I write this late Wednesday night, it looks like the MRI results show it’s just a strain, and that he may miss only a week. It’s a pretty big week to miss with all the important games they are going to play, which includes San Antonio on Friday, Phoenix on Saturday, and Dallas on Wednesday.

In the first quarter, I decided I was going to start tracking all the questionable shots that McGrady threw up, and it didn’t take long to find one. At the 4:40 mark, McGrady could have passed it to Luis Scola, who had hustled down court on a fast break, but McGrady didn’t reward Scola’s hustle with a pass to the baseline where he was wide open. Instead, he shot a three-pointer on a freakin’ fast break, and missed. The Rockets didn’t get the rebound.

So McGrady was “down one” on my questionable shots tracker.

About a minute later, he did the same thing by not passing to Scola on a pick-and-roll and decided to attempt another 3-pointer. But this time he made it, so although it was a very questionable shot and he made it, I won’t count it against him.

But then a funny thing happened: McGrady started passing to Scola to get him involved in the offense. On top of that, by the end of the first quarter, McGrady had only taken 5 of the Rockets’ 23 shots (a reasonable percentage, unlike Tuesday night in Memphis), which was less than Yao Ming’s 6 attempts. So I was thinking maybe coach Rich Adelman had talked to him after last night’s game about trying to get his teammates involved earlier, like I had recommended in last night’s blog post.

Let me digress a bit about Scola. He made 2-of-4 shots in that first quarter (the only shots he would take for the entire game), which included two nice jumpers showing promise he can bring defenders out of the lane to honor his shooting ability. But he also shot an airball, dribbled the ball off his foot for a turnover, and missed 2 free throws…all in the first quarter.

You know what? I’m okay with that. The Rockets can’t hide a decorated player like Scola because he hasn’t adapted to the NBA game yet. The only way he’s going to get used to the NBA is to play more. The season is young, and he will continue to get better and live up to all the promise we heard about when the Rockets acquired him. And if he doesn’t live up to expectations (which I can’t imagine), then there’s always Carl Landry – who actually looked pretty good during the preseason — waiting to make an impression.

Let’s get on to the rest of the game. The Lakers were on fire while taking an 18-point lead in the second quarter, and the Rockets couldn’t stop them. Kobe Bryant was hitting everything (6-of-8 in the quarter) along with Jordan Farmar (3-of-5) and the Lakers as a whole hit 5-of-8 three-pointers in the second quarter, and 14-of-21 field goals overall.

Meanwhile, the Rockets offense – even with McGrady playing - was struggling big-time. Yao Ming was 0-for-5 from the field, but he did make 5-of-6 free throws, his lone miss snapping his 35 consecutive free throws made streak.

Bonzi Wells, who got more playing time after McGrady hurt his elbow, was 0-for-3 in the quarter. Surprisingly, Adelman put Kirk Snyder into the game, mainly to try to slow down Kobe since Shane Battier was in foul trouble. Snyder, who is big and athletic for a two-guard, got his first regular season playing time, and he ended up making 2-of-2 shots. So that was a pleasant surprise that Snyder was able to show Adelman what he could do in such a quick amount of time in his first regular season action. Good for him. With McGrady out for a few games, look for Snyder to get more playing time.

Although the Lakers were cruising, I knew it was only temporary because there was no way they could continue shooting 66% from the floor the rest of the game like they did in the second quarter. I also didn’t think the Rockets would shoot as poorly the rest of the game.

My hunch was right as the Rockets got back into the game in the third quarter, and I had a feeling the “other” Rockets wanted to show that they could win a game without McGrady, who got hurt near the end of the second quarter.

Battier got back on track by hitting 3-of-5 shots in the third, including two three-pointers. That was a welcome sight to see. He’s been struggling more than anyone thought he could. Fortunately, the Rockets eventually got back into the game by holding the Lakers to just 5-of-17 shooting in the third while the Rockets outscored the Lakers 22-14 to only trail 75-71 entering the fourth quarter.

It was going to take some fortitude on the Rockets’ part to get over the hump after coming back from 18 points down, to do it on the second night of a back-to-back, and to not have McGrady in the lineup.

As great as Bonzi Wells was in giving the Lakers fits in getting to the hole, he missed several layups and chip shots that could have made the difference in this ballgame. I’m not complaining too much, though. Bonzi’s 21 points and 10 rebounds were about the only thing happening on offense other than Yao, and he was being aggressive. Even ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy had to say (jokingly), “Who is the idiot who didn’t play him last year?” Nicely said.

There were a lot of good things that took place as the Rockets tied the game and eventually took a small lead in the fourth quarter. But there was a lot of bad, including 3 unintentionally missed free throws by Yao, and 3 missed FTs by Bonzi.

With the Rockets leading 83-81 with about 5 minutes left in the game, for some reason the defensive set was to force Kobe Bryant TOWARD THE BASKET rather than have him run pick-and-roll from the middle of the court. Battier did that on 3 separate possessions, and I was astounded because I couldn’t believe they were actually wanting to allow Kobe to get CLOSER to the basket rather than force him to go sideways. The third time Battier played it that way, Kobe made them pay by hitting a jumper to tie the game at 83-83.

Then on the next possession, Yao charged into Kwame Brown foolishly while he was trying to post him up, turning the ball over.

Then Bonzi fouled Derek Fisher unnecessarily as Fisher was driving to the hole, but he did it with Yao guarding the rim and the shot being a tough one for Fisher to score on anyway. That sent Fisher to the line, and he made both free throws to give the Lakers an 85-83 lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

Then with 2:58 remaining, the Rockets’ offense totally bogged down without a playmaker. After nothing happening in the Rockets’ possession, Battier amazingly decided to go one-on-one from the three-point area and hoist up a bad shot with the shot clock winding down WHILE YAO MING WAS WIDE OPEN RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! Cmon, Battier? You’re a Duke grad and you’re supposed to have a high basketball IQ. I was shocked!

Then on the ensuing Laker possession, the refs screwed the Rockets when Kobe dribbled the ball into the lane, lost control of it, and the stupid refs said he was fouled! That sent Kobe to the line where he made both free throws. That was a huge blow, putting the Rockets down 87-83 with 2:41 remaining.

A few seconds later, Yao was fouled, but he missed 1-of-2 free throws. It would just be the start of his free throw percentage taking a huge hit. At the 2:01 mark, Yao was fouled again after Bonzi dished a great pass to him after driving toward the basket. Again, Yao missed 1-of-2 free throws to make it 87-85, Lakers.

Kobe then hit a big shot that would put the Lakers up 89-85, and on the following Rockets’ possession, Bonzi put up a crazy one-handed running hook shot that had no chance of going in (where’s the shot selection?), but luckily Yao grabbed the rebound and was fouled. However, Yao would make only 1-of-2 free throws. That’s 3-of-6 missed free throws in crunch time for Yao. Ouch!

I had hoped the days of Yao missing big free throws late in games was over. But I have to think that once you miss a free throw after such a long streak of making them, you start thinking about it more. It seems almost better to miss a free throw occasionally to keep you focused and relaxed, not having to worry about a streak that just ended, with the trade-off of making clutch free throws when you really need them.

Still, the Rockets had their chances down 89-86. Unfortunately, Bonzi was blocked with 1:07 remaining, then he was fouled with 44 seconds remaining. But then he missed both free throws. Luckily the Rockets got the rebound after the second missed free throw, but Bonzi missed another long two-pointer. However, the Rockets got the rebound and Battier threw up an airball of a three-pointer, and then Rafer Alston missed a three. The Rockets fouled Andrew Bynum after Alston missed his 3-pointer, and the 20-year old second-year player calmly went to the line and made both free throws. What?

The Rockets had one final chance — down only three points with less than 2 seconds remaining — when Yao missed a free throw intentionally (and beautifully) that came back directly to him, and he kicked it out to Alston for a chance to tie the game with a three pointer, but of course Alston missed it, and it was game over.

I’m hoping that a lot of the missed free throws and missed shots in crunch time were the result of playing the second night of a back-to-back, having to fly all the way from Memphis the night before, and having to expend a lot of energy coming back from an 18-point deficit. You’ve got to think Bonzi was tired playing 40 minutes (made only 7-of-12 free throws and 7-of-19 shots) to pick up the slack from McGrady getting hurt and Battier getting in early foul trouble. Still, Bonzi is only a 70% free throw shooter, and he needs to be better than that the way he gets fouled down the stretch.

Even if the back-to-back wasn’t the reason the Rockets didn’t deliver down the stretch, I am extremely optimistic that Adelman will have to play Steve Francis now, given McGrady’s injury and the severity of Alston’s bad shooting. It’s plain as day how much he sucks at shooting this season (5-of-13 against the Lakers, 1-of-6 from three-point territory). It’s time for Rick to smell the coffee, take away minutes from Alston, and give minutes to Francis so we can see what Francis can do. He also needs to sit Alston’s ass down immediately if he ever shoots another 3-pointer again. I’m tired of it! He’s killing this team!

I remember when the Rockets acquired Francis during the off-season, I said that he is really an insurance policy if anything happens to McGrady. Now is his chance. If Adelman doesn’t give him some minutes, then it will be time to wonder what’s really going on there. Is Francis in that bad of shape? We’ll find out Friday night when the Rockets play the Spurs in San Antonio, which is another nationally televised game.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. LA Lakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.