The 11-point fourth-quarter lead was gone. The Rockets were
reeling. The Minnesota Timberwolves were rolling.
But this has happened so many times that by Tuesday's closing
stretch it seemed less a Rockets shortcoming than a goofy plan, as
if they have blown all those fourth-quarter leads to somehow steel
themselves for the final minutes.
Even if far from intentional, they surged through the final
minutes Tuesday to an 82-75 win over the Timberwolves before 12,709
fans at Toyota Center, then no longer felt the need to quibble
about how they got there or even that Tracy McGrady was not sure if
he could play tonight in Phoenix with a bruised abdomen.
"Actually, at the point it's getting close, I'm not nervous,"
Yao Ming said. "I didn't feel worried. That's the way we play.
We've gone through this many times."
Even Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, laughingly calling himself
the Norman Vincent Peale of positive coaching spin, happily pointed
past the fine print and to the bottom line, with the Rockets' 10
wins their most in November since they went 15-1 in 1996.
"We didn't let them back in," Van Gundy said. "That's the
negative way of looking at it. The more positive way of looking at
it is that they did some good things because they're pros and
they're trying. The same thing happened last night in Dallas.
"People get preoccupied with different things. What matters is
you win. It doesn't matter how you start or how you finish. It's
about winning."
With 3:39 remaining and all of the Rockets 11-point gone, the
Rockets had hit an offensive wall as they searched for a 3-point
shooter.
They found him in the corner, where he always is, with Shane
Battier pump-faking and then hitting a leaning 3 to beat the
shot-clock buzzer and more than stop the bleeding. With that one
shot, he seemed to revive the Rockets.
Battier followed that 3 with another and after a Randy Foye
turnover, Rafer Alston, who had made 2 of 13 shots, nailed a
3-pointer for a 77-70 Rockets lead. Alston followed that with a
tear-drop in the lane to put the Rockets in front, 79-70, with 1:46
left.
Looking to positives
Van Gundy, however, might have become focused on the bright side
after McGrady did not seem nearly as damaged as he looked when he
left the court with one of the long, pained walks that became
familiar sights last season.
McGrady, who returned to play 20 relatively effective
second-half minutes, had bruised an abdominal muscle in a collision
with former teammate Mike James.
"I don't know if it was an elbow or a kick," McGrady said.
"Whatever it was, it was a painful hit in my abdomen. It was tough
for me to breathe every step that I took. It was a painful
blow."
McGrady said the pain worsened through the game, putting his
availability tonight into question. But that was nowhere near as
frightening a prospect as a repeat of last season's back
problems.
"Last year is a very deep memory for us," Yao said. "Hopefully,
that will never happen again."
The Rockets showed progress since last season just by being able
to close out the win in the final four minutes without McGrady's
scoring. McGrady finished with eight points, making just four of 14
shots. He did not attempt a shot in the final 7 1/2 minutes after
hanging in the air and twisting to a jumper to beat the shot
clock.
McGrady passed inside to Yao for a slam on the next possession,
but with the Timberwolves in the zone that locked up the Mavericks
in the fourth quarter on Monday, Minnesota completed its run back
from an 11-point deficit to tie the game 68-68, with 4:42 left.
That's when the Rockets righted themselves, starting with Shane
Battier's corner 3 just before the shot-clock buzzer.
"Rafer (Alston) drove to the baseline and (Marko) Jaric ran out
there pretty hard," said Battier, who made all five of his
3-pointers to finish with 17 points. "I was lucky I glanced up and
saw one second (on the shot clock). I was just trying to get it
off, hit the rim and hopefully we could get the rebound, but it
went down."
A possession later, he nailed another 3-pointer before Alston
made his customary late offensive surge. After making two of his
first 13 shots, Alston nailed a 3-pointer and then sank a tear-drop
in the lane for a 79-70 lead with 1:46 left.
"We're getting there, but we're still not getting better at
sustaining the lead," Alston said. "Hopefully, we can take a
10-point lead to a 15-point lead. The best thing for us is we
continue to play the defense we're playing in the fourth. If we
keep fighting and rebounding the ball, we'll find a way to make
some shots."
(China Daily November 30, 2006)