Yao Ming is shown here in the Rockets’ locker room ill from an upper respiratory infection that kept him from playing against the Utah Jazz Sunday night. Without Yao, the Rockets struggled against the Jazz and lost 97-89.

There may have been a lot of debate a couple of weeks ago if the Rockets were better off without Tracy McGrady when the Rockets won more games than they lost when he was out with an injury. However, there is absolutely no way that discussion has any merit when it comes to Yao Ming being out, as Rocket fans saw Sunday night against the Utah Jazz.

Yao had to be scratched from the game because of his battle with an upper respiratory infection, and as optimistic you wanted to be that the Rockets could still win without him, it was clear they missed his 23 points and defensive presence in the lane.

Yao is as tough as they come, having played with a similar kind of ailment earlier this season, so you know he had to be really feeling like crap not to play in such a big game since the Rockets are right behind the Jazz trying to get into the playoffs.

This game came down to the Rockets’ main bugaboo this season – the fourth quarter. I knew early on in the fourth when the Rockets couldn’t stop the Jazz that the trend would continue. It reminded me too much of last year’s playoff series between the Rockets and Jazz when the same thing happened. Unfortunately, I turned out to be right as the Jazz scored 37 points in the fourth and scored on their last 13 possessions to beat Houston 97-89 at Toyota Center Sunday night.

It has become too familiar of a theme lately against Utah. The Jazz are to the Rockets at Toyota Center as Tiger Woods is to other golfers at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.

It was up to the other Rockets to pick up the slack, and in the first half, that didn’t happen. Houston shot a putrid 34% in the first half, with Tracy McGrady only making 1-of-8 shots in the first half. Rafer Alston was pathetic shooting (again), hitting only 2-of-8.

Alston’s ability to hit teardrops in the lane has suddenly disappeared again – he air-balled one in the first quarter. He also blew running the fast break a couple of times. For example, on a 4-on-1 fast break, he gave the ball up too early to McGrady when he could have taken a couple of steps closer to the basket to draw the only defender to him, then dishing to McGrady at the last second for an easy layup. Instead, his early pass botched the break. As a team, the Rockets also had way too many turnovers by halftime – 9.

Carl Landry, getting more minutes because of Yao’s absence, was active as usual. But Utah did a good job of getting in his face and contesting his shots deep in the paint. Give credit to Utah defense — Landry was only 1-of-5 from the field in the first half, but he did go to the line 4 times and made 3 of them.

Shane Battier and Luis Scola took on more of a scoring role in Yao’s absence, with both hitting 3-of-5 shots to have 7 points each at halftime. Aaron Brooks was the lone bright spot in the Houston backcourt, hitting 2-of-3 three-pointers for 6 points.

Utah’s shooting wasn’t much better, shooting only 41% on their way to a 41-35 halftime lead. But the Rockets still gave up too many easy baskets, letting the Jazz score on at least 2 or 3 alley-oops.

However, Scola and Landry were fairly active in the middle, which was one dimension the Rockets missed having in last season’s playoff series: players at the power forward position who could score and give the Jazz fits inside along with Yao. By that fact alone, I remained bullish about the Rockets chances in the second half.

Unfortunately, the offense continued to stay terrible at the start of the third quarter, with the Rockets missing their first 7 shots.

But then McGrady got going, hitting 4-of-8 shots in the third quarter, although Adelman knew it was going to take more than McGrady to give the Jazz fits defensively, so he finally (and wisely) gave Steve Novak some playing time. And did it pay off!

In just 4 minutes of play, Novak hit a baseline jumper at the buzzer, a long two-pointer at the top of the key, and two 3-pointers to score a career-high 10 points. It was one of the most electric scenes I’ve seen at Toyota Center in a very long time. The crowd knew that this was Novak’s chance to show what he could do, so every time he put up a shot, you could hear the buzz as he got ready to launch his shots. And when he drained all 4 of his shots, you had to love the reaction not only from the crowd, but from the Houston bench. They all rose from their feet and danced in jubilation as their long-awaited sharpshooter delivered the goods in a real game.

Because of McGrady and Novak lighting it up in the third, the Jazz only led 60-59 entering the fourth quarter. At the start of the fourth, I had to give coach Rick Adelman credit for not putting Alston or Luther Head back into the game, and rewarding Aaron Brooks, Novak, Landry and Scola for their energy by keeping them in the game for at least the first half of the fourth quarter.

Although Houston hit a respectable 11-of-18 shots in the fourth quarter led by McGrady’s 5-of-8 shooting, he was 1-of-4 from three-point land (and 1-of-7 overall…remember what I have been saying about the relationship between the number of 3-point attempts McGrady shoots and Houston’s ability to win?)

Scola also went to the line 8 times in the fourth quarter, but only made 5 of those free throw attempts. McGrady was 0-for-2 from the line, although those FTs were attempted after he had injured his hand falling out of bounds after being fouled.

On the other end of the floor, Houston couldn’t stop the Jazz. The Jazz’s brilliant front office acquisition of Kyle Korver a few weeks ago paid off big-time, with Korver hitting 3-of-5 three-pointers in the fourth quarter – many of them wide open. Ironically, if the Rockets’ Novak hadn’t showed what he could do on Sunday from 3-point range, then you can bet there would be many Rocket fans wondering why Houston couldn’t have acquired Korver to get that outside threat.

However, it wasn’t that great of a night for Novak on the defensive end of the court. On one play in the fourth quarter, Novak fell down out of bounds and was slow to get back into the action on the court, which left Andrei Kirilenko wide-open for a layup. He also was responsible for leaving Korver open on two of his late 3-pointers that were absolute daggers to the Rockets’ chances.

It will be interesting to see if Adelman thinks those defensive lapses were enough to keep Novak out of future games. I hope not. I know Jeff Van Gundy would have. JVG gave up on Novak last year because of similar situations, thus not giving him the chance to improve defensively like Scola has done this year through more playing time.

Utah’s Derron Williams had 6 points and 8 assists in the fourth quarter alone, showing the difference between the Rockets’ starting point guard and Houston’s is still huge. Williams is just money down the stretch.

On the other hand, I thought Rafer Alston made the worst decision at the most critical juncture of the game. With the Jazz leading 85-77 with 3:04 remaining, the Rockets still had a chance if they could score on a high-percentage shot. Instead, he jacked up a 3-pointer that clanged off the rim. On Utah’s ensuing possession, Korver hit a 3-pointer to push the Jazz lead to 88-77, and that was the ballgame.

Alston finished with 8 points on terrible 4-of-13 shooting, missing all 4 of his 3-point attempts. McGrady finished with 21 points on 10-of-24 shooting (1-of-7 from 3-point land) and was 0-of-3 from the line. Scola had 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, although he shot 6-of-12 from the charity stripe as well. Not good against a team where every point counts.

Shane Battier stepped up by hitting 6-of-9 shots (3-of-5 from the 3-point line) to score 15 points. But the brightest star was Novak, who scored 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting, and more importantly, gives Adelman confidence that he deserves more playing time, especially when Yao is back in the lineup drawing double-teams. They could absolutely use Novak on Tuesday when they play the undersized Golden State Warriors, who are sure to collapse down on Yao and leave perimeter shooters open.

Now if only the Rockets’ starting point guard can get Novak the ball rather than shoot 3-pointers himself. Speaking of point guards, I absolutely loved how Aaron Brooks blew past Derron Williams with 7 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to score a layup off the glass! It’s so sweet to see a really good opposing point guard have to defend a threat like Brooks who can’t be guarded, and giving him a taste of his own medicine.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 11:38 pm and is filed under vs. Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.