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Wednesday March 25, 2009 10:33 AM

Rockets Fall Short In Salt Lake

Jazz pull away late for 99-86 victory

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Salt Lake City - Perhaps it was just one of those nights.

In some respects, the Rockets did exactly what they set out to do against the rival Utah Jazz: They not only controlled the glass, they dominated it; especially on the offensive end. They also hit their threes and played solid, if not spectacular, defense for the vast majority of the game.

What the Rockets could not do, however, was sink their shots from inside the arc. And eventually, their inability to do so cost them dearly, as Utah pulled away late for a 99-86 victory. The loss snapped Houston’s four-game winning streak and bumped the Rockets from their perch atop the Southwest Division.

“I think we missed too many easy shots,” said Yao Ming who struggled through a 6-16 performance from the field. “I checked the stats and the good thing is we had 13 offensive rebounds, but we only scored 4 second chance points. That means you’re really not shooting well and at some point in time we lost control of the tempo.”

Yet despite Houston’s anemic 33 percent shooting on two-point attempts and off nights from Yao, Ron Artest (5-22 from the field) and its normally reliable bench (Rockets reserves scored just 11 points on 4-19 shooting), the Rockets still found themselves right in the thick of things heading into the game’s final five minutes.

Houston trailed by a mere four points following a Shane Battier trey at the 5:07 mark, rekindling memories of Sunday’s thrilling fourth quarter comeback in San Antonio. But there was no encore performance this time, as Utah immediately responded with an 11-0 run, which proved more than enough to bury Houston as the Rockets mustered just four more points the rest of the way.

“This is the typical Jazz game in Utah where it was defined by spurts,” said Battier who finished with 18 points, built largely upon his 4-7 shooting from deep. “They just had a couple more spurts than we did and we spent a lot of energy trying to catch up and just didn’t have enough in the end.

“We got 92 shots up, which is a Phoenix Suns type number. You get 92 shots - that’s pretty good. We offensive rebounded the ball great, we just couldn’t put the ball in the bucket.”

In fact, Battier was the only Rockets starter who shot better than 50 percent from the field Tuesday night. And though that speaks volumes about the kind of night it was for the rest of Houston’s starting five, it would no doubt immensely help the Rockets going forward if Battier’s performance were to signal a turning point in a season which has often seen him struggle with his shooting touch.

“Eventually it turns around,” said the seventh year swingman from Duke. “It doesn’t matter now; by the numbers I’m going to have the worst shooting year of my career, so I’m beyond that and have taken the ego out of it. So it’s easy now; the shots are free, I’m not worried about keeping my career averages up (laughs).”

Also working in the Rockets favor is the fact that the team now embarks upon a seven-day stretch in which they’ll play only one game (Saturday night, at home against the Clippers). The timing couldn’t be better – with just nine games left in the regular season, the week ahead should serve as the ideal tune-up period for a club eying en extended playoff run.

“I think it’s great, I really do,” said Coach Rick Adelman. “We have a pretty good idea about what works with this group now and we’re really going to go with that and find out, especially in the fourth quarter, what we can do. We’ve found out what teams will do to us and the teams we’re playing are going to turn the volume (in the fourth quarter).

“So I think that break is going to give guys a chance to revive a little bit and give us a chance to do things film-wise and on the court that we have not been able to do. I think it’s really valuable right now.”

QUOTES

RICK ADELMAN

Just disappointed in the way we played the second half. We were very impatient offensively and it cost us.

(happy with the looks you were getting?): Not in the second half. I thought we forced the issue. We shot in the low 30 percent, turned it over 9 times (in the second half) and that led to breaks at the other end. I thought we were very impatient. In the first half I thought we got pretty good looks; in the second half I thought we were very impatient which led to easy opportunities for them.

(did the struggles to make shots lead to that impatience?): It could. But that’s when you’ve got to settle down and you can’t add fuel to the fire and let them just keep pushing it at us. We did that tonight. We’ve just got to do a better job than we did tonight.

(on the Jazz defense and their 12 blocked shots): They were good, they were aggressive, and the aggressive teams usually win the game. They usually don’t block a lot of shots except for maybe Kirilinko, so you give them a lot of credit but also our guys have to find a way to finish.

RON ARTEST

We kept playing. They were just the better team tonight. But we outrebounded them. I kept telling Yao, ‘As long as you keep attacking the glass, you’re going to wear them out down there.’ So we did what we had to do today – we killed them on the offensive glass – and I’ll take a game like this any day. You get 13 offensive rebounds and shoot 35 percent and you lose by whatever you lost by, you’ll get it back next time.

We did what we needed to do and we feel good. We feel good going to the playoffs and that would be a good matchup going into the first round – Utah and the Rockets.

LUIS SCOLA

It was a tough game. We told ourselves to dominate the boards and we did, but we shot pretty bad. It’s just hard to know why. It sometimes happens.

I’m not happy we lost. It was a very important game for us. It was as important or more than the game in San Antonio. So definitely I’m not happy. I think we compete and we played hard, and we were in the game which is very important. But we’re not happy.

SHANE BATTIER

This is the typical Jazz game in Utah where it was defined by spurts. They just had a couple more spurts than we did and we spent a lot of energy trying to catch up and just didn’t have enough in the end.

We got 92 shots up, which is a Phoenix Suns type number. You get 92 shots - that’s pretty good. We offensive rebounded the ball great, we just couldn’t put the ball in the bucket. It was just one of those nights.

(on his improved shooting of late): Just keep shooting, eventually it turns around. It doesn’t matter now; by the numbers I’m going to have the worst shooting year of my career, so I’m beyond that and have taken the ego out of it. So it’s easy now; the shots are free, I’m not worried about keeping my career averages up (laughs).

AARON BROOKS

(Jazz defense of just missing shots?): I think it was a little bit of both. They did a good job of protecting the paint. Once we got into the middle they were all crashing in. We had wide open threes and just weren’t hitting them. Shane had a great shooting night, but if we hit a couple more threes it probably would have been a better game.

(what do you learn going up against all these great point guards?): I just learn that I need to get stronger. I’m not there yet, I’ve got a lot of work to do. Honestly, I know that I can play with these guys. I have nothing but confidence.

(how do you feel your development is coming along): I think it’s been alright. I think the most important thing is I had no turnovers today. I’d like to have more assists of course, but you learn something each time you play. Defensively, I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but every game is a learning experience, especially against Utah.

YAO MING

I think we missed too many easy shots. I checked the stats and the good thing is we had 13 offensive rebounds, but we only scored 4 second chance points. That means you’re really not shooting well and at some point in time we lost control of the tempo.

(happy with the shots you got tonight?): I liked most of my shots, they just didn’t go in. I think I need to work on that. I really don’t understand how I missed them.

(just one of those nights when the shots weren’t falling?): I hope it is like you said when it’s one of those nights when it’s not our night. We still need to stay solid. We still have nine games left until the playoffs start and we cannot think [we lost] just because we weren’t making shots, because tomorrow it could happen again if you’re not paying attention out there. That’s happened to us before.

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