How Sweep It Is!

Rockets cap perfect road trip with 107-98 victory over Miami

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Click here to listen to the Player of the Game interview with Ron Artest.

Houston - The Rockets were a rather grumpy group upon embarking for their three-game road trip last week. They’d just suffered a discouraging home defeat to Dallas and faced increased scrutiny about their on-court chemistry, offense and ability to stay healthy. But five days later, those bitter feelings surely seem like nothing more than a distant memory after Houston put the finishing touches on a sweep of its east coast swing with a 107-98 victory over Miami.

Yao Ming led the Rockets’ potent inside-out attack with 28 points and 12 rebounds, while his teammates were locked in from beyond the arc, shooting 10-of-19 from downtown. With the win, Houston moved to 10-5 on the young season; good for second place overall in the Western Conference.

“On this trip we learned something,” said Yao after the game. “We found which way we are going to play basketball. We are going to use the advantage we have on the team. For the first ten games we played without team discipline. We passed the ball to the weak side very well on this trip. We need to keep doing that the rest of the season. We were very clear where we were going to hit them at. (The Heat) really don’t have any big bodies. I know what I should do.”

The Rockets were able to overcome a somewhat sloppy start thanks to their dead-eye marksmanship from downtown. Despite several blown lay-ups and silly turnovers, Houston still managed to race out to a 30-21 first quarter lead, fueled in large part by a 5-of-7 mark from beyond the arc.

The second quarter featured more of the same as the Rockets continued to shoot lights out (51.4%), but failed to pull away from Miami, primarily due a whopping 10 first half turnovers. Still, Houston took a 56-48 led to halftime as each member of the Rockets’ starting frontcourt (Yao, Artest, Scola) scored 9 points, while helping the team dominate the glass with a 26-17 rebounding advantage.

Tired of getting burned by the Rockets’ long-range gunners, Miami’s defense extended closer to the three-point line in the second half and that’s when Yao really went to work. The big man scored nine points during an 11-0 Houston run in the third quarter, as the Rockets saw their lead balloon to 13 at one point. But Houston still couldn’t shake the Heat, mainly because of Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers. The duo combined for 21 of Miami’s 27 third quarter points, and by the time the frame came to a close, the Heat were within 5.

In fact, Houston didn’t pull away for good until the game’s final five minutes. With both Yao and Tracy McGrady on the bench, Ron Artest (20 points, 3 steals) triggered the Rockets’ stretch run with a jumper, followed by a steal of Wade which led to an emphatic slam by Carl Landry. Two possessions later, Landry was at it again; grabbing an offensive rebound, then getting fouled as he converted the put-back. The ensuing free throw gave Houston a 98-90 lead, then Rafer Alston – as he’s already done several times this year – provided the dagger; draining a three-pointer with 1:47 to go, sending Houston well on its way to the club’s fifth win in six games.

And 1’s: Houston has now won ten road games in a row against Eastern Conference opponents… Despite an injured right ankle, Artest did an admirable job on defense against Dwyane Wade, the NBA’s second-leading scorer. Wade produced 23 points, but was just 7-of-23 from the field and turned the ball over five times. “We wanted to try to keep him from getting into the basket,” said Adelman. “Whenever he gets to the basket he’s such a tough finisher and he gets to the line so much. We want to zone up as much as we can and just give Ron as much help and it was important that Ron stayed patient. We just wanted to make him work and try not to give him anything easy.”

Quotes:

Rick Adelman

On the win:

“It was another solid win for us, for the most part we really followed the game plan for Wade and Ron did a great job of just having patience, just making him work. I though offensively we were pretty good tonight so it’s a great trip.”

OnYao Ming:

“ Yao (Ming) can’t come out from the rim. He has to stay at the rim because that’s where he is effective. He just has to stay back there because that’s when he’s really effective because he’s so big that if he just stays there he is hard to shoot over.”

Ron Artest

On Dwyane Wade:

“He had an awful night. He didn’t play like I’m used to seeing him play. I guess a lot of it had to do with the back line. I guess I’m one of the better defenders. If I’m on him I have a better chance than some other guys. It was a great team effort.”

On Yao Ming’s Performance

“ Yao played great. I thought he could’ve played better. He still had 28 points and 12 rebounds, but he could have still played better than he played tonight.”

Yao Ming

On Dwyane Wade:

“He is the key guy. We paid a lot of attention to him. He (Dwyane Wade) makes a lot of open shots for his teammates. You cannot just look at the stats and see that he had 20 points. A lot of his teammates’ points come from him.”

On Shane Battier:

“Shane is the best defensive player on our team. He is also a good shooter from the perimeter. When he comes back we will play with more confidence.”

Miami Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra

On the difference in length:

“Well, he [Yao Ming] does create a match-up problem down there. He’s so efficient. You can’t foul him. It’s tough to play in front of him. It’s tough to play behind him. In the first half we kind of opened up the door for the three-point shooting. We didn’t close out quite as hard as we have in other instances and they got it going. We didn’t shoot well from the free throw line. They hammered us on the glass. They had 17 second chance points.”

“We’re not going to use that as an excuse. In the second half, when we were really disruptive, and playing at that type of disruptive pace, it looked a little bit different. Our size, we understand what it is every game. We have to play a little bit differently. We showed that we were able be somewhat successful in the second half when we had the effort.”

On the Houston Rockets’ play:

“That’s a very good defensive team. They have sound principles. They’re coached well. They have a lot of size and individually they’re pretty good with it. Our pick and roll game was not quite as open as it has been, and we really didn’t make any adjustments.”

On the Miami HEAT’s play in the first half compared to the second half:

“The energy level in the second half was much different than it was in the first half. I’m not necessarily sure how or why it’s like that, but our disposition was totally different. We picked up the intensity (in the second half). That is the type of team we have to be. We can’t be a team that just lets you pound it in and play at their pace. We have to be a kind of team that disrupts and gets the other team off balance, and we certainly didn’t do that in the first half.”

On the HEAT carrying the energy onto the road:

“That’s the plan. I think every single player in the locker room is aware of it. Now it’s a challenge. It’s a young team, to go out on the road. It’s our first extended road trip and we’ll be out there for a while – five games. We have to translate this type of effort and make it more consistent for 48 minutes and do it on the road.”

On Joel Anthony’s contribution:

“He just didn’t break into the rotation early on and now he’s getting more minutes. He’s a guy that I mentioned a couple games ago, the more minutes he gets, the more comfortable he gets out there with our guys. He certainly gives us a lot of defensive energy, rebounding and blocking shots. Offensively, he knows how to make it work.”

On the game:

“In the first half, it’s tough to spot a team that good. They’re a very solid team on both sides of the ball. They’re an excellent defensive team. Offensively, I think it’s a team that’s going to just get better as the season goes on.”

Michael Beasley

On the game:

“We lost. In the first half we did not have any energy and they jumped on us.”

“It is just one of those days I guess.”

On Yao Ming:

“ Yao is Yao. He’s eight feet tall. There isn’t much we can do.”

Udonis Haslem

On Yao Ming:

“We couldn’t really play one-on-one. We had to come double every time. When you double you leave yourself in a situation where they spread the floor and you have to run down shooters. Tonight we didn’t get to the shooters like we wanted to and they knocked down shots.”

“I can’t think of anytime where he just totally turned around and dominated me and dunked on me. He’s very skilled. He’s very skilled for a guy his size. He put us in a lot of different situations that we are not used to being in.”

“Everybody is playing off Yao (Ming). That’s how they play. They continued to do that in the second half and he got to the free throw line. We gave them a lot of second shots at the basket. They were able to get the ball back into him. They did a good job.”

Shawn Marion

On the game:

“They’re a good and solid team. [ Yao’s] a hard cover. We have to be on top of everything that much more because he’s so big.”

“They are a solid team. They way they spread the floor and run their big men create a lot of stuff. I think when we scramble like that, we are not in a position to get some of those loose rebounds and that’s what killed us tonight, and our inactivity in the first half.”

“We bit ourselves in the foot too early.”

On Yao Ming:

“He’s so big. He sets up right at the rim and all he has to do is turn around and throw that thing in there. He’s 7’6”. The tallest guy on our team is 6’10”? We just dug ourselves a hole a little too early.”

Notes:

Rockets improve their record to 10-5 this season, 7-3 on the road. Their 10 road games are tied for most in league with Portland and Milwaukee (at Orlando tonight).

Rockets win all three games on their three-game Eastern Conference road trip and have won four straight away from the Toyota Center.

Rockets made a season-high tying 10 three-point field goals tonight and made 27 treys on their three-game road trip. They were 10-for-19 from behind the arc tonight.

Rockets owned a 51-35 rebounding edge in the game, winning each quarter.

Yao Ming recorded his team-leading seventh points-rebounds double-double with a game-high 28 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 13 of his 28 points in the third quarter.

Yao Ming recorded a season-high four assists, three of which led to three-point field goals.

Ron Artest scored 20 points and added three steals in the game. He has at least one steal in 14 of his last 15 games this season.

Luis Scola recorded his third points-rebounds double-double this season with 11 points and a season-high and game-high 13 rebounds.

Tracy McGrady scored six points and is 22 points shy of becoming the 71st player in NBA history to score 17,000 points. His cousin Vince Carter is 74th with 16,883 points

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