PrintKings Roll To 109-100 Victory Over Houston
Rockets' rally falls short in Sacramento
Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer
Sacramento - Chuck Hayes simply placed his head in his hands and sighed. What else could he do after watching his team's formula for success - high energy, hard work and maximum effort - used so effectively by the opposition?
All night long, the Sacramento Kings excelled in the areas which had helped Houston get off to such a great start this season. The Kings were quicker to the ball and more aggressive throughout, and as a result the Rockets' northern California doppelgangers came away with a 109-100 win.
"They beat us to every loose ball," Hayes conceded. "They wanted it more, they cut harder, they committed themselves on the defensive end. – they beat us in every aspect. It just shows that when you dig yourself a hole, you have to work three times as hard to get out. As hard as we played in the third quarter, we were still down. That just shows how important that first half was."
Indeed, the first half - and second quarter specifically - proved to be Houston's undoing Friday night. The action was fast, furious and thoroughly entertaining as both teams raced up and down the floor exchanging baskets during the opening 24 minutes. But while fans no doubt enjoyed the show, Hayes said his team fell victim to the siren song of the wide open, offensive extravaganza, subsequently ditching their defensive principles amid their eagerness to pursue as many points as possible.
"We were blindsided by our success on the offensive end," he explained. "I guess we figured that if we were scoring the ball, everything was ok – but it’s not. If the energy is not there and we’re not playing defense, sooner or later it’s going to backfire on us - and it did."
That moment of reckoning came with the Rockets nursing a 37-36 lead early in the second quarter. The Kings then proceeded to go on a 19-7 run, as Sacramento's scorching shooting and domination of the boards helped the home team pull away. When the dust from the first half settled, Sacramento had scored a whopping 63 points thanks to 8-12 shooting from downtown and an astounding 32-13 edge on the glass. Only a superlative showing from Trevor Ariza (18 first half points and a career-high tying 5 steals) and the Kings' proclivity toward turning the ball over prevented Houston's halftime deficit from being greater than 11.
"We were getting beat on penetration time after time," said Rockets' Head Coach Rick Adelman. "The effort was not where it needed to be."
Shane Battier later shed light on yet another defensive deficiency: "They had a lot of open looks along the perimeter in secondary transition. Usually good transition ‘D’ entails stopping the ball above the three-point line. But even if you can’t stop the ball, there’s got to be a load to the ball which means everyone has to shift over and help discourage a quick drive to the basket and we were just a step slow. Tyreke Evans did a good job of attacking and finding people along the perimeter, (Andres) Nocioni and (Beno) Udrih hit a couple threes that way and that just comes down to discipline. If you’re playing good disciplined defense, you run back as a unit, present a united front and make them run their half-court offense."
Yet for all that went wrong in that second quarter, the Rockets still managed to rally and push Sacramento until the final buzzer. Houston opened the third quarter with a 13-3 run and even managed to briefly take the lead when Luis Scola (20 points, 9 rebounds) flipped in a jump hook putting the Rockets on top 71-70 near the five-minute mark. But Sacramento scored the next five points and never trailed again, holding off Houston in the fourth quarter despite the Rockets' repeated rallies and a stretch which saw Shane Battier tally 11 consecutive points for his club on his way to a season-high total of 23.
"They’re a mirror of us in a lot of ways," said Battier of the young Kings who have now won four in a row. "When we play well early and get confidence early, it’s hard to shut it off. Conversely, we gave them confidence early and we just couldn’t turn it around in the second half.
"Especially in the fourth, it just seemed like we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. The ball took some strange bounces. But in a close game those are the plays you have to make and they hit some tough shots with the shot clock winding down. It was just one of those tough nights. But we could’ve not put ourselves in that position if we would have taken care of business early."
QUOTES
RICK ADELMAN
I’m very disappointed with our effort in the first half defensively. We just didn’t come out with mentality and they got it going and we gave up 63 points. You’re not going to win in this league doing that on the road.
I thought offensively, you have to be sure you get good plays and you can’t rush things, you have to play together as five people. But we got down and then you can’t make mistakes. Every possession is crucial.
Put it all on our defense. We just didn’t have it in the first half. You can’t give up that type of production from the other team and expect to win.
We were getting beat on penetration time after time. The effort was not where it needed to be. In the second half we shored it up some but we’re not going to win unless we come out with effort every night. We’re not that good. Our guys have to understand that. I didn’t like our effort the whole first half in a lot of areas.
They have some young talent and they played well tonight. We should’ve known it was going to be a tough game here.
LUIS SCOLA
They completely dominated the first half and that was a huge part of our problems. It can’t happen. We did not come out to play the way we ha to today and we can’t afford to do that. We have to play hard every possession.
CHUCK HAYES
They beat us to every loose ball. They wanted it more, they cut harder, they committed themselves on the defensive end. – they beat us in every aspect. It just shows that when you dig yourself a hole, you have to work three times as hard to get out. As hard as we played in the third quarter, we were still down. That just shows how important that first half was.
The energy definitely wasn’t there but we were blindsided by our success on the offensive end. I guess we figured that if we were scoring the ball, everything was ok – but it’s not. If the energy is not there and we’re not playing defense, sooner or later it’s going to backfire on us – and it did.
It was just effort. The effort was there in the third quarter – you saw it. But our effort the rest of the game wasn’t good enough to dig ourselves out of the hole from the second quarter.
SHANE BATTIER
They’re a mirror of us in a lot of ways. When we play well early and get confidence early, it’s hard to shut it off. Conversely, we gave them confidence early and they’d won three in a row so they feel like they’re a good team and we just couldn’t turn it around in the second half. They’re a very loose group in the way they play and while we want to be aggressive, we still want to be aggressive and disciplined and we just didn’t have any discipline tonight, especially on the defensive end.
Especially in the fourth, it just seemed like we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. The ball took some strange bounces. But in a close game those are the plays you have to make and we just couldn’t grab those balls and they hit some tough shots with the shot clock winding down, and it was just one of those tough nights. But we could’ve not put ourselves in that position if we would have taken care of business early.
Their rim defense is actually near the bottom of the league so we felt we could attack the rim. We had 50 points in the paint tonight so we did a good job of that. What I think we lacked was a little bit of patience.
They had a lot of open looks along the perimeter in secondary transition. Usually good transition ‘D’ entails stopping the ball above the three-point line. But even if you can’t stop the ball, there’s got to be a load to the ball which means everyone has to shift over and help discourage a quick drive to the basket and we were just a step slow. Evans did a good job of attacking and finding people along the perimeter, Nocioni and Udrih hit a couple threes that way and that just comes down to discipline. If you’re playing good disciplined defense, you run back as a unit, present a united front and make them run their half-court offense.
Kings’ Head Coach Paul Westphal
“It’s starting to get kind of loud in that building – I really like that. That was a very good team, a very tough veteran team. I thought we did so many good things defensively and on the boards particularly. We had way too many turnovers in the first half and kind of wasted some great shooting, but in the second half we cut our turnovers down and played the way you need to play to win NBA basketball games. So we put ourselves in a position to win. Then in the fourth quarter we only had two turnovers, outscored them and really showed some good togetherness out there. I was really pleased with the way we played.”
(On his team’s ability to own the boards tonight):
“You have to give so much credit to Jason Thompson – he’s the one getting all those boards and he’s a hard man to keep off the boards. You can’t expect to outrebound a team like that every night but it really is nice to have those kinds of stats in your team’s favor. The way we’ve been doing it this year, we’re turning into a pretty decent rebounding team.”
(When asked how they react when there are a lot of turnovers):
“We told them before the game to watch out for (Trevor) Ariza – he’s got panther-like reflexes, he gets in the passing lanes and if you dribble near him he takes it from you. After he had five steals I think they believed us and they started watching out a little bit more for him. Yes, absolutely we try to fix things if we see that they aren’t working and the players, to their credit, reacted – but it’s not always easy.”
Tyreke Evans
(On their plan coming into game)
“We just came out there and had to run, we knew that they were a physical team. They have a couple of guys who have been on their team for a while now. The game plan was to just go in there, rebound and run our offense. We had to try to get as many stops as we could.”
(On his play)
“I’m just playing; in the first couple of games I was thinking too much. Since I was the number four pick, I was under a lot of pressure, and I was not getting out there and playing. I went out there and did that tonight and now I feel comfortable.”
(On having the game in his hand when it’s on the line)
“It is my dream, growing up and being a kid, you see the clock winding down and you want to be the one to take the shot and make the crowd go crazy. I had my chance tonight and let it fly and it went in.”
Jason Thompson
“It is exciting and we know that our guys are young. We have to make progress sometime and I think that it is better now than to have it later.”
(On their streak)
“I don’t think that we are surprised, we have to set goals to play well. The media is telling us that we are going to be at the bottom of the (Western Conference), maybe the bottom of the league. It is just more motivation for us. Maybe it is tougher for the teams who were predicted to play really well and don’t. We didn’t have any pressure coming in and we still don’t.”
(On his goals for himself)
“I set goals for last year and I set goals for this year. I am just going to keep with it. The stuff that I am doing and the stuff the team is doing is working. We just have to stick to it.”
(On staying out of foul trouble)
“I am just watching film and getting advice from the coaches. They try to tell you the terminology of playing through fouls, but you can’t play through fouls if you are in foul trouble. Why not make it easier and just not get stupid fouls. If I happen to get one early, I know to not be as aggressive. I just have to adjust to what they give me.”
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