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Tuesday December 23, 2008 10:18 PM

Rockets Come Up Empty In Cleveland


LeBron James scores 27 to lead Cavs to victory

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Houston - Something had to give.

The Rockets came into Cleveland as Road Warriors, riding an 11-game road winning streak against Eastern Conference foes. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, hadn’t lost on their home court all season.

Unfortunately for Houston, home-cooking won out Tuesday night, as Cleveland capitalized on off-nights from Houston’s two superstars, pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 99-90 victory.

The Rockets (19-10) fought gamely to the end, but were simply unable to overcome Yao Ming’s constant foul trouble and a performance from Tracy McGrady (4 points on 2-of-7 shooting) which seemed to indicate he was once again troubled by his bothersome left knee.

“Those four games in five nights caught up to me," acknowledged McGrady after the game. "I couldn’t get it going, one of those nights where I’m not 100 percent. To try to come out here and play against a great team like this on the fourth night, I was feeling pretty tight.”

The first half was the type of grind it out, nip-and-tuck affair befitting a game featuring two of the best defensive teams in the NBA. While both clubs did manage to shoot better than 50 percent in the opening 24 minutes, absolutely nothing came easy. Even Cleveland’s All-Everything superstar LeBron James was not immune, uncharacteristically turning the ball over 5 times. In fact, both teams had ten giveaways apiece in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Rockets were also busy battling big time foul trouble. Yao picked up his third foul of the game with 5:55 still remaining in the second quarter; this, after Carl Landry had succumbed to the same fate just minutes earlier.

Still, Houston managed to keep pace with the Cavs thanks to the hot shooting of Rafer Alston and Ron Artest. The two combined for 23 first half points, primarily on the strength of 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the three-point line. When the dust settled and the halftime buzzer sounded, it was 47-all and the Rockets had to be feeling good about having survived with their big man on the bench for so long.

Unfortunately, the third quarter offered no relief in that regard. Stunningly, Yao got whistled for his fourth foul less than one minute into the second half. The call was certainly debatable, but that fact alone did nothing to mitigate the damage. With their All-Star center back on the bench and with McGrady largely ineffective, the Rockets began to lose ground. As if smelling blood in the water, James (27 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) went into unstoppable mode, repeatedly burning the Rockets with his fearless forays to the basket. By the time the quarter mercifully ended, Cleveland led 73-66 and James had poured in 15 points.

The final frame began with more of the same and for the first few minutes, it looked like Houston was on the verge of being run out of the building. But after Cleveland’s lead reached 14, the Rockets began to find a rhythm, thanks in no small part to the fact that Yao was finally allowed to stay on the floor for an extended period of time.

Houston’s comeback began innocently enough, with two Yao free throws cutting the Cavs’ lead to 84-72. Then Brent Barry and Aaron Brooks followed with a pair of three-pointers which further trimmed the deficit down to 6. By the time Yao (19 points, 5 rebounds) sank two more free throws at the 5:34 mark, Houston was putting the cap on a 15-2 run which had brought the club within a point of Cleveland, at 86-85.

But that was as close as they would ever get the rest of the way. Yao, in the midst of a 14-point quarter, missed a shot the next time down the floor which would have given the Rockets the lead, and James promptly responded by finding Houston-native Daniel Gibson wide-open for a three-pointer from the right wing. Little more than one minute later, that same combo hooked up for an identical result, effectively ending the Rockets’ hopes of completing their comeback bid.

“We still have a lot of room for improvement," said McGrady, while reflecting upon how the Rockets stack up against the NBA's elite. "We really put ourselves up at the top; I still feel we are a great team. There is no doubt in my mind that we will be mentioned with those great teams by the end of the season. We just had to mix in different lineups, because we had different guys going out. Tonight was the first time I think we played all year with our whole roster. For us to have so many lineup changes and so many guys out and for us to be in the position we are in is pretty good.”

Despite the loss, the Rockets made a good impression on James, too.

"We knew this was going to be a tough test as they’ve been playing great basketball of late, winning four straight," he said. "They have some good pieces and Coach Adelman has done a great job with that unit. Coach Brown said it was going to be a good test for us, but on the other end, it was a good test for them. I bet you Coach Adelman said the same thing to his team. One of the powers in the East and one of the powers from the West bumped heads tonight.

“I told Ben (Wallace) that today was a heavyweight fight. When you go against Houston, you know it’s going to be a physical game. The addition of Ron Artest makes them really physical. I had to bring my “A” game, especially on the defensive end. I knew I was going to have to guard multiple guys because you do anything for the team and I was able to accomplish that.”

QUOTES

RICK ADELMAN

(On the game): “I just thought we played really hard; we were in trouble all night long. We had a nice comeback, but they made the plays down the stretch.”

(On Tracy McGrady): “I think he wasn’t moving really good. He told me at the end of the third quarter he was sore and everything. I put him in and watched him and took him out.”

TRACY McGRADY

(Getting looks over shorter guys): “I just didn’t have the lift. That’s why I really wasn’t as aggressive as I normally am because I just didn’t have it.”

CAVS COACH MIKE BROWN

(On the game as a whole): “Both teams showed toughness, and I like that down the stretch we defended. Obviously they missed some looks, but I thought our guys hung in there and kept trying to rotate and protect one another throughout the course of the ballgame. I thought that the energy that Ben gave at the beginning of the game was huge, he played terrific for us at the beginning especially. I thought Daniel Gibson played big for us; he had a couple of big shots late (in the game). For someone his size to come up with six rebounds in this ballgame is phenomenal. He boxed out guys twice his size to stop them from getting rebounds, so he played a terrific floor game for us…the last guy I’d like to mention is LeBron. LeBron showed a lot of toughness tonight. He had to guard a lot of different types of players from Tracy McGrady to Shane Battier to Ron Artest. His ability to be versatile on the defensive end of the floor was huge. People need to start looking at him for the all-defensive team, because he’s having a heck of a year on that end of the floor and he’s not getting enough credit for it.”

(On going to the zone play): “(Assistant Coach) Melvin Hunt made a terrific call of getting a little movement and running a man-to-man play versus their zone, and it got Gibson a wide open three that he hit on the other side of the floor. It was a great call by Melvin. It was a good, tough win for us.”

(On difficulty of game): “From a physical nature and a mental toughness standpoint, yes, it was a taxing game for both teams. It was good to see our team respond the right way.”

(On losing the lead, then recovering): “It’s the mental toughness of the guys in the locker room. That group is mentally tough, they’re physically tough and they have a will about them that’s good to see this early in the season.”

LEBRON JAMES

(On not doubling Yao late in the fourth quarter): “It didn’t really seem that Yao was in the flow of the game offensively. He was waiting us to come down on the double team and he would throw it out for them to make threes. We were up 14 points and they hit a couple of threes, which hurt us. We wanted to try and dig in and if Yao gets going, we could double team him, but we wanted him to make tough shots.”

(On finishing off the Rockets): “I think it was Daniel and Mo hitting shots down the stretch, but at the end of the day, it was the defensive stops we had. We had back-to-back stops on the post with Yao and we didn’t let them get second chances. They cut it all the way down to two and we kept getting stops until Boobie and Mo hit the back-breaking shots.”

(On being considered for the all-defensive team): “I don’t worry about the individual awards. We know as a team that we are a very good defensive group and I know that I’m a very good defensive player, and we’re just going to try and get better on that end of the floor. I’m going to keep watching and scout teams and the individual players I have to guard. We’ll see what happens.”

(On mental toughness): “We have a lot of mentally tough guys on this team. Myself, Ben, Mo, Delonte and really all of us are mentally tough. We’ve been in situations where we’ve been up and teams have made a run. We continue to keep our poise and get stops and make shots.”

MO WILLIAMS

(On defeating a good team): “We knew they were a good team coming in; a physical team, a big team. It was a great game all around. They made their runs, we made our runs. We got our stops, they got their stops. We made the plays when it counted and we won the game.”

(On winning a close game): “You expect that when you play good teams. We didn’t expect to blow them out; we didn’t expect for it to be easy. We knew we had to compete. We knew we had to play to win this game. They had a four game winning streak and we knew they were playing well. We are playing well also, so we had to come out and compete and be the aggressor. I think, for the most part, we did.”

(On if execution was a key to the win): “I think that you want to do that every game. In a game that counts, you don’t want to waste possessions. In a game like this, you want every possession to count for something, to give yourself a chance. I think, for the most part, we did. We came down and moved the ball and we got shots that we wanted. ‘Bron got it going, he made plays for others and I think that made it a lot easier for everybody else. When he does that, it opens up the floodgates for everybody to get going a little bit.”

(On LeBron’s block on Yao Ming): “I think that was his best block of the year. He’s had a lot of them, but that’s amazing. That’s a big guy. Going up, he’s so close to the rim and you have to jump so quick to get it. I think that, in my opinion, that was the best block of the year.”

Got a question for Rockets.com? Send it to Jason Friedman.