http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2531092
OT loss to Lakers shakes Rockets
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
The Rockets were there, riding the heights of emotion until they could almost
surf on the adrenaline that was pumping through them.
They had the Lakers beat -- or at least seemed to every bit as much as the
Lakers had them tucked away a few dozen mind-blowing turns of events before.
The Rockets were opening their stride to the tape with a sensational comeback
to an overtime win and what would be, in just a few minutes, a dead-even
series.
"Everybody was really happy," center Yao Ming said. "The victory was right in
front of our face."
The Lakers, however, held it just beyond their reach. The Rockets seemed to
have grown into everything they have been trying to become. But the Lakers
were still the real thing and grabbed a 92-88 overtime win Sunday at Toyota
Center to head back to Los Angeles with a 3-1 lead in their first-round
Western Conference playoff series.
"It's the most painful (loss), especially at home, when you have the game
right there in your hand and somebody takes it right away from you," Rockets
guard Steve Francis said.
"If a couple things go a different way, if we just make a couple different
plays, we hold on to the lead, and we've got it," Rockets forward Jim Jackson
said. "It's a 2-2 series."
That was what made the loss excruciating.
In the moments when hearts climb into throats screamed raw, the Rockets led by
four, twice with possessions to take the lead to six, then lost precisely in
the way they have lost so often in close games.
Outscored 9-1 in the final two minutes, the Rockets committed two turnovers in
the final 77 seconds, then failed to secure the rebound that let the Lakers
clinch the win.
Until then, the Rockets had gone to extremes -- sometimes inspiring, sometimes
preposterous -- to stand up to anything the Lakers could throw at them. From
Bostjan Nachbar putting his skin and bones in the angry path of Karl Malone
to coach Jeff Van Gundy barking a two-word "opinion" to Lakers coach Phil
Jackson, the Rockets seemed and sounded happy to measure themselves against
the Lakers' best.
"They were trying to let us know from the beginning they were not going to let
us come into the paint," Rockets forward Maurice Taylor said. "They came in
with a bully mentality. They wanted to come in, play physical, play hard, and
scratch and claw and get the win. The thing is, we can't back down."
The Rockets did not back down, even when facing a 14-point second-half deficit
and a 10-point Lakers lead to begin the fourth quarter. The Rockets had played
the game without the 3-point touch that carried them to the Game 3 win, making
just four of 22 shots and only one of their last 17 attempts from beyond the
arc. Cuttino Mobley had made just two of 13 field-goal attempts.
But Mobley took off around a high screen to sink a layup with 91 seconds left,
bringing the Rockets within 81-79.
The Lakers would not score in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation, giving
the Rockets every chance to take the win. With that, Francis summoned his
inner Kobe Bryant by backing Derek Fisher off with his dribble and nailing a
jumper from 21 feet for a tie at 81 with 39.1 seconds left.
"I taught him that shot to win games," Bryant said. "He had a play here
earlier in the year when he just kind of dribbled the clock out in a
game-winning situation (against the Spurs). I saw him at the All-Star break,
and I said, `How come you don't do what I do, which is back the guy up off
the dribble and just raise up and shoot over the top of him?' "
Bryant chose a driving jumper that missed, and Francis tried the same move.
This time, his shot fell short. But Kelvin Cato snared the rebound and got
the ball to Jim Jackson, who had 16 points to go with his career-high 20
rebounds.
But Jackson, thinking the Rockets had a one-point lead, held the ball, waiting
to be fouled. The scoreboard had erroneously put the Rockets' lead at 82-81
after Francis' basket, leading Jackson to think Francis had hit a 3-pointer
and that the Lakers would have to foul him.
Instead, the shot clock expired before Jackson put up an airball. Bryant then
missed a rushed heave, and the game went into overtime.
The Rockets immediately took their first lead since the first minutes of the
second quarter. After consecutive Mobley drives, the Rockets led 87-83 with
2:25 remaining. But those were their last baskets of the day.
In the final two minutes, the Rockets had two turnovers, missed two shots and
made just one of two free throws.
"Throughout the whole game, I thought we had a good shot to win," Francis
said. "We gave ourselves an opportunity where we were up; two crucial
turnovers in crucial situations really, really hurt us. I thought we were
going to close them out. We had two bad possessions in a row. They
capitalized with two three-point plays. It's hard to close those boys out."
Malone, who finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds, drove on Yao for a
three-point play that fouled Yao out of the game with 1:27 remaining. Bryant
stripped Jackson and scored on a driving jumper for an 88-87 lead. After a
Francis free throw, Bryant got another drive through Taylor's foul for a
three-point play and a 91-88 lead with 40.3 seconds left.
Francis beat Fisher off the dribble but lost the ball out of bounds. Fisher
missed, but when Malone got the rebound, the Rockets were forced to foul, and
Malone's free throw closed out the win.
"It should have been our game," Taylor said. "We felt like we let it get away."
What they didn't give away, the Lakers took. For all the Rockets aspired to
be, that much had not changed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rockets summary
Sidebar
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was exchanging his thoughts with official David
Jones when Lakers coach Phil Jackson briefly joined the conversation,
inspiring a short, terse Van Gundy response.
Jackson said something about Van Gundy straying too far toward midcourt. Van
Gundy shouted a two-word invective.
"He yelled down at me his opinion, I guess, of where I was on the floor," Van
Gundy said. "And I gave my opinion back on his opinion. Don't try to take
away from the game with some silly coaching sidebar. The game, that's what
(matters). It's no news. We ain't smoking the peace pipe here any time soon.
But it's not about us. It's about our teams. He coaches his team great, and
I'm trying to help my team."
季後賽看這兩個教練鬥嘴也挺有趣的 :P
Phony Malone
The Rockets generally agreed Karl Malone undercut Bostjan Nachbar on a
second-quarter drive that set off an exchange of technical fouls (on Gary
Payton and Steve Francis) and Malone's anger moments later when Nachbar
fouled him trying to block his shot.
Francis said Malone brings "dirt" to the game. Cuttino Mobley said he was
foolish or phony.
"You really want to fight?" Mobley said. "Do you really want to do that?
Would you do that out on the street? So you can go to jail for 15 or 20
years. Would you want to do that?"
Nachbar would seem an unlikely adversary. But he said he is willing.
"I do have a lot of respect for the guy," Nachbar said. "But he has to know
one thing. Everybody has to know one thing. I'm not afraid of him. He can
look at me, give me bad looks. Whatever. I respect the guy. I saw him play
since I was 10 years old. It was just a situation the foul got called and the
fans went crazy. It's the playoffs. It's a part of the game."
Time out
Official Joe Crawford left the game in the first half and was taken to the
Methodist Hospital emergency room during the first half to be checked for
blood clots in his right calf. With no clots found, he returned to the game
with 4:38 left in the third quarter.
It was the second consecutive game in which an official left the court because
of calf problems. Eddie Rush could not finish Friday's game.
Kobe factor
Kobe Bryant flew home with the team after Sunday's game, but is expected to be
in Colorado today for three days of hearings. Bryant, who is charged with
sexual assault, is expected to rejoin the team Wednesday evening before
tipoff.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said the team would normally spend the next two days
of practice making adjustments, prepping themselves on the Rockets and working
on new sequences. Bryant's absence changes that.
"I imagine we'll hold a lot of things for the day of the game or the evening
of the game, so that he can make that adjustment," Jackson said. "I don't
worry about him. He has the ability to make those."
No Mailman?
Word is Karl Malone is considering pulling out of his participation with the
USA team at this summer's Olympics in Athens. Malone might want to spend his
summer rehabilitating the right knee he injured this season and being with
his family. Malone has played on two gold-medal teams for the United States.
--
“ Do we have enough talent? We have enough talent. But every team in the
league has enough talent. Attitude, chemistry, spirit -- now in those
things there's a wide difference. The question is, do we have enough team?
And that's what we're going to find out. ”
— Jeff Van Gundy
--
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