PrintRockets Head Home Ready To Begin Pivotal Stretch
Disappointing loss to Suns has Houston searching for ways to get back on track
Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer
Phoenix - And so it comes to this.
For weeks, if not months, the Rockets have pointed to January 7th as the day the schedule finally breaks in their favor. It’s not as if the coming weeks will be a walk in the park because, let's face it, there’s no such thing as an easy schedule in the NBA.
But after treading the NBA’s most difficult path during the season’s opening two months and playing 22 of their first 36 games away from the cozy confines of Toyota Center, the Rockets will welcome whatever relief they can get. 10 of the next 12 games at home? Yeah, the Rockets will take that.
Quite frankly, this turn of the tide could not be coming at a more opportune moment. For perhaps the first time this season, the Rockets are facing a genuine, honest to goodness bout with adversity. Their starting unit is struggling. The team’s transition game is not what it once was. And now, after Wednesday night’s disappointing 118-110 defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns, Houston is staring at its first three-game losing streak of the season.
So, yes, the Rockets’ 20-16 record far exceeds the preseason expectations of 99.9% of the basketball-following population. And, yes, the best is almost certainly still to come from this group which is still in the process of forming its own unique identity. But the club’s current malaise has done two things: 1.) It’s taken a bit of the luster off the team’s surprisingly strong start and 2.) It’s managed to magnify the need to take full advantage of a stretch of games which begins Saturday night when the New York Knicks come to town.
“At the start of the year if you had said, ‘You guys are going to be four games over .500 on January 7th – would you take that?’ I think unequivocally you say yes,” explains Shane Battier. “Now that we’re at January 7th and you ask the same question but include that we’re on a three-game losing streak and probably playing our worst stretch of basketball on the season, then you say no. So it’s all a matter of perspective.
“We know this is a huge stretch for us. Every game, from now until the All-Star break is winnable and so we have to put something together here if we want to make a push for the playoffs.”
To do so, the Rockets will have to address the No. 1 priority on their current agenda: finding a way to get the starting unit back on track. Aaron Brooks is rolling (as seen by his career-high 34 point night against the Suns) and Chuck Hayes is steady as ever. But Battier, Luis Scola and Trevor Ariza are collectively slumping; a big reason why Houston has repeatedly found itself having to dig its way out of first and third quarter holes in recent weeks.
General Manager Daryl Morey says the Rockets need a new approach for the way they start halves. Head Coach Rick Adelman agrees, expressing as much to his troops immediately following Wednesday night’s game. And while it’s doubtful that implies anything as drastic as a lineup change at this point, there’s no question the club must do something to ensure that its starting five begins setting the tone in a more positive fashion from here on out.
“We’re not playing the way we’ve talked about playing,” says Adelman. “We’ve walked the ball up the court. We need five people running up and down the court and we’re not doing it. We’ve got to change that. We can’t have one group playing one way and then the next group playing different.”
Adds Battier: “We’ve had slippage in the chemistry department. You can just tell by the way we play. We haven’t been as unified at both ends of the court. You can say that with pretty good confidence because the second group that comes in, the guys off the bench, have great chemistry. They play together, they move the ball, they space the floor and they rely on each other to play good basketball.
“I think the tendency for the first group right now is to really try to do it themselves and try to carry the team out of the slump. We’re not doing it out of malicious reasons; every guy feels that they can help the team and raise the level of play. But we’ve gotten away from trying to do it collectively instead of individually and it’s resulted in some pretty bad basketball.”
The upshot of all this: Players and teams go through slumps. It happens. The good ones then go back to work and find a way to snap out of it. Battier has been here before. His shots will start falling. Scola, as consistent a player as you could ever hope to find, will return to his double-double ways soon enough. And Ariza simply needs to stay patient, keep learning and battle through the growing pains which currently have him in their grasp. What’s more, with Adelman at the helm, the entire team will surely benefit from his steady, creative approach; one which figures to be displayed a bit more frequently now as practice days become more than the mere myth they have seemed during the Rockets’ recent schedule.
In the meantime, it’s important not to overlook the contributions Houston continues to receive from its bench brigade. The Rockets’ reserves were dynamite once again Wednesday night, outscoring the Suns’ bench by a whopping 48-17 margin. Leading the way was Landry, who poured in a career-high 31 points, further enhancing his already prolific credentials for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
Houston’s super subs have played a huge role in the Rockets’ success this season and will no doubt continue to do so in the weeks and months to come. And should the starters rediscover their mojo once more, the team could be primed to make the sort of run which has now become almost customary in these parts once the calendar flips to reveal a new year.
As Battier said, it’s all about perspective. Before the season began, back flips and cartwheels would have been in order at the mere suggestion of the team sporting a 20-16 record upon completion of such a murderous opening schedule. It speaks volumes about how far this club has come, however, that no such celebration is even being considered now that we’ve actually reached this point. Instead one finds mostly disappointment and thoughts of what might have been.
Yet that may very well be the best sign of all because it illustrates precisely how this team is no longer content to simply compete hard and overachieve. It now has dreams and designs of bigger and better things; not simply for the years to come but for this year as well. And there have already been myriad moments, in fact, when it has proven precisely why those aspirations are based in reality and not merely some misplaced Pollyanna-ish fancy.
So now it’s back to work. Time to fix that which is broken and gather steam for a stretch which could serve as a make or break moment of the Rockets’ season. This is the day the team has had circled on its calendar for more than a month. It is a continuation, yes, but also a beginning. And regardless of perspective – be it buoyed or ebullient – the reality is that the Rockets kept their heads above water and put themselves in position to take advantage of the opportunity which now lies before them.
They’ve given themselves a chance. Now it’s time to make the most of it.
QUOTES
RICK ADELMAN
(On Tonight’s Game)
“Start of the first quarter and start of the third quarter, I was just really disappointed in the way we played. We’re not doing what we need to do. We responded and came back and had our chance but Nash was too good. He just orchestrated everything down the stretch for them.
I’m more concerned with how we’re playing then just looking at (our play) down the stretch. Tonight I changed the lineup (down the stretch). I put Carl in with four small people and we haven’t done that or really practiced it very much because we haven’t practiced, and there are things we can do that I think we can do better with that group in there.
I fully believe we can finish games and do enough to finish games but if we don’t stop anybody at the other end… We got a couple of stops, Nash threw the ball away very uncharacteristically a couple times. But I’m more concerned about the way we’re playing throughout the course of the game and we’ve got to get back to what we were doing before. It’s not about scoring points it’s about how you play and everybody’s got to be part of that.”
(on the poor starts to the first and third quarters): We’re not playing the way we’ve talked about playing. We’ve walked the ball up the court. We need five people running up and down the court and we’re not doing it. We’ve got to change that. We can’t have one group playing one way and then the next group playing different. Give the guys credit off the bench, they came in and turned the tide for us again. We have a big stretch for us over the next three weeks and we have to get back to playing the way we’re (supposed to play) and all 11 guys on the team have to buy in to it just like they were doing before and understand that we’ve had some slippage.
AARON BROOKS 34 POINTS | 5 ASSISTS
(On Tonight’s Game)
“Steve Nash is pretty good. They got every shot they wanted and hit it. They hit a lot of threes. Barbosa played well and Frye was really shooting it well. Nash was Nash pretty much. That’s what happened at the end of the game.
It was a game of runs and we knew that. Unfortunately, in the past couple of games our fourth quarters haven’t been so good. We’ll just try to learn from it, but I’m kind of tired of these learning experiences, but I don’t know that’s the way it goes.”
CARL LANDRY 31 POINTS | 10 REBOUNDS
(On Tonight’s Game)
“We just had breakdowns. I think we can compete with pretty much anybody in the league. I’ve been pretty much saying that since the beginning of the year. We just didn’t execute when we needed to late in the fourth quarter.
Coach told us before the game that this was going to be a game of stretches, where they could get a run going and we could be down, and vice versa. That’s what happened, they got off to a good start and we came back. We kept our composure and tried to keep playing our game but we had too many breakdowns in the fourth quarter.”
(on the fourth quarter): We had some breakdowns. They went to Jason Richardson a lot in the fourth quarter and not to Amare as much and Steve Nash got hot. It seemed like he couldn’t miss and that just changed the outcome of the game.
(on the losses to LA and Phoenix): I really wanted to get a win or better yet two wins on this road trip. It didn’t work that way. But we have nine games this month at home and we need to try to win every last one of them.
(on his career-high scoring): I had a career-high game but I’ll trade all of that for a win. You don’t really get the chance to enjoy it with a loss, so I’d trade it all for a win.
(on how teams are now defending him down the stretch): I’ve noticed a change. A lot of teams are digging down on me and even double-teaming me especially when I catch it low on the block. I just have to continue to watch film. This is the first time that teams have ever guarded me like this since college, so I’ve got to continue to soak up things from the coaching staff and the player personnel guys here and just keep getting better because teams are guarding me different now.
I have to recognize when it’s coming and where it’s coming from. And when it does come, I need to recognize where to pass the ball to.
SHANE BATTIER
(on the starting unit): We’ve had slippage in the chemistry department. You can just tell by the way we play. We haven’t been as unified at both ends of the court. You can say that with pretty good confidence because the second group that comes in, the guys off the bench, have great chemistry. They play together, they move the ball, they space the floor and they rely on each other to play good basketball. I think the tendency for the first group right now is to really try to do it themselves and try to carry the team out of the slump. We’re not doing it out of malicious reasons; every guy feels that they can help the team and raise the level of play. But we’ve gotten away from trying to do it collectively instead of individually and it’s resulted in some pretty bad basketball.
(on their three point shooting): That’s what they do. Their pick-and-roll is probably one of the three hardest plays to cover because you have to respect the roll of Amare Stoudemire and at the same time recover to help on the shooters. And Steve Nash is the best in the business, he’s going to make the right pass. So if you make a lapse in judgment or you’re slow by a step, Nash is going to make you pay for it. It’s a really difficult play to stop and Frye, Richardson and all their shooters did a really good job of making us pay tonight.
(on the schedule turning): At the start of the year if you had said, ‘You guys are going to be four games over .500 on January 7th – would you take that?’ I think unequivocally you say yes. Now that we’re at January 7th and you ask the same question but include that we’re on a three-game losing streak and probably playing our worst stretch of basketball on the season, then you say no. So it’s a matter of perspective.
We know this is a huge stretch for us. Every game, from now until the All-Star break is winnable and so we have to put something together here if we want to make a push for the playoffs.
PHOENIX HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY
(Opening statement)
“That’s probably about a good of win as we’re going to have against a team of that quality. They are just blue-collared all the way, and then when you throw in a guy like Aaron Brooks, they just become real difficult to guard. Carl Landry is just such a tremendous post up guy who’s got great strength and then he steps out on the perimeter and makes shots. They’re tough; it was a real quality win for us. I thought we showed a lot of determination. It was such a seesaw game, I don’t know if I’ve ever been involved in a game where you’re up 16 then down 16, you’re up 10 and then you’re down five. It was such a crazy game but we hung in there. I thought our guys hung in there and did a good job with coming up with plays when we had to, then we came up with some stops when we had to, and then we walked to the line and made our free throws. It was a quality win against a quality team.”
PHOENIX FORWARD AMAR’E STOUDEMIRE 25 POINTS | 11 REBOUNDS
(On game)
“That was definitely an up and down game. I think for the most part we got up and played well the first quarter then just had to fight our way back in it. They got a pretty good lead there for awhile, but we hung in there and kept our composure and got the win.”
(On the second night of a back-to-back)
“I definitely felt that in the second half my legs were starting to fatigue out there from the long flights and the back-to-back nights. For the most part though I think we did a great job. Robin (Lopez) came off the bench and played great. The role players came out there and really shot the ball well. It kind of game us a lift there in the second half. It was definitely much needed and we got the win.”
PHOENIX GUARD JASON RICHARDSON 20 POINTS | 6 REBOUNDS
(On game)
“I’ve never seen a game like this before. Two teams that both go up by 16. It was a back-and-forth roller coaster game, but both teams had played back-to-back games. Each team had spurts and went on runs gave up runs. I’ve never been part of a game like this before.”
(On game)
“We just knew this was an important game to us. We wanted the win. We definitely wanted to keep our home winning streak going. Winning at home is so important because it can be tough to win on the road. We just dug in and got stops at the end and made some good plays to close it out.”
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