[Chron] Rockets wary of playoff chatter

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April 1, 2005, 1:17AM

Rockets wary of playoff chatter

They say they're happy where they are, no matter whom they'll play

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE STANDINGS
Team W L PCT GB
San Antonio 53 18 .746 ---
Dallas 48 23 .676 5
Houston 44 28 .611 9.5
Memphis 39 31 .557 13.5
New Orleans 16 54 .229 36.5
As of Apr 1 2005 12:23 a.m. CT


Tracy McGrady won't look at the standings. He doesn't know what they reveal. He will wait to learn where they will take him.

Jon Barry never skips a day. He knows just where the Rockets stand in relation to the Mavericks (behind) and Kings, Nuggets and Grizzlies (ahead).

Clarence Weatherspoon sounded insulted at the suggestion he might sneak a peek. Scott Padgett looks but finds the exercise unfulfilling. Jeff Van Gundy found the whole topic too nerve-wracking.

For all the different starting points, the Rockets have landed at the same crossroads of ignorance and indifference. With 10 games left in the regular season, the Rockets said they don't really know — and claim to not care — how the playoff bracket will break down.

The playoff possibilities are, however, beginning to take shape. Enough games remain for the Rockets' playoff position to change dramatically, but they are most likely to finish fifth or sixth in the Western Conference and face Dallas or Seattle in the first round.

Wednesday's 100-84 victory in Portland moved the Rockets a half-game in front of Sacramento and into fifth place, a position that would almost certainly set up a series with the No. 4 Mavericks. (Dallas trails third-seeded Seattle by just a game, but the top three seeds go to division winners.) A sixth-place finish would bring on the SuperSonics.

RESOURCES
LOOKING FOR FIVE

Five wins in 10 games will put the Rockets in the play-
offs. The likely suspects:
• Today: Hornets. Should
be a gimmie.
• Tues.: At Warriors. A West Coast pick-me-up.
• Thurs.: At Lakers. Battling mostly for L.A. supremacy.
• April 13: Grizzlies. Limping with four losses in five.
• April 18: Clippers. See Lakers, above.
THE TOP EIGHT

A look at the top teams in the Western Conference:
• Suns (54-17): With 11 games left (including Rockets twice), the Suns should hold off Spurs for top seed.
• Spurs (53-18): Must go to Dallas, Denver and Memphis. Real goal is to get Tim Duncan back.
• Sonics (49-22): Play Rockets twice. Rashard Lewis' injury is not serious enough for Seattle to be sure what it is: ankle or knee.
• Mavericks (48-23): Rolling under Avery Johnson. Awaits rest of East Coast trip to Philly and Cleveland.
• Rockets (44-28): After Sunday test against Suns, another four-game trip awaits. Home-court edge looks out of reach.
• Kings (44-29): Fifth within range but not much of a prize given history with Dallas.
• Nuggets (39-31): Go to Memphis, Houston and Phoenix and play Spurs, Sonics at home. Could drop to eighth but no further.
• Grizzlies (39-31): Has toughest schedule; Pau Gasol and Stromile Swift are trying to get playoff-ready.
JONATHAN FEIGEN
The race for the fourth seed and home-court advantage in the first round is almost over. The Mavericks lead the Rockets by five games in the loss column. The Rockets lead the Grizzlies and Nuggets, who are tied for seventh, by three games.

But if all that seemed to indicate anything about where the playoffs would begin, even the Rockets who study the standings insisted they could change.

"I look every day," Barry said. "You can't control it, but you watch it, make assumptions about where you want to finish, who you would like to play, which I can't make public or Jeff would wring my neck.

"We could be anywhere from four to eight. Fourth is going to be a stretch, being five games behind Dallas, but five to eight seems to be where we're going to be. I have a feeling we're going to be in the fifth spot and wind up being at Dallas to start this thing off."

The Rockets have played the Mavs twice since the trades that remade their rotation, winning both. But Dallas played without Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Erick Dampier at Toyota Center on March 6, rendering that loss irrelevant.

The meetings with the Sonics also prove little. The Rockets fell apart in the fourth quarter of the Sonics' win. The Sonics collapsed in the third quarter of the Rockets' win in Seattle.

"They're all pretty much the same," McGrady said of potential first-round opponents. "You don't want to face a team like San Antonio. But it will be exciting no matter who we play. Whether we fly 3 1/2 hours to Seattle or 45 minutes to Dallas, we'll be ready."

To Van Gundy, however, even that is assuming too much.

"I want to get there first," he said. "I mean, really. I know people don't look at it like I do, but if you look at our schedule, we play four of our last 10 against Phoenix and Seattle. I'm not focused on any team except us. That said, the four teams that have separated themselves in the West have done so for a lot of reasons and those reasons will bode well for them in the playoffs."

But when it was pointed out that the Rockets are closer to those four teams than they are to the lottery, Van Gundy confessed his mania.

"I know that's what the numbers say, but I don't see it that way," he said. "I just think about winning, doing the best we can to prepare to win, trying to improve and play our best because all that down-the-road thinking, all that does is cause you angst, heartache, misery, sleeplessness. You look at who you're playing. You look at who everyone else is playing. You don't think any other team is going to lose, and you may never win again."

Others agree the standings reveal too much uncertainty to be trusted.

"You see who's where, who you match up with," Padgett said. "It's only natural. Right now, it's kind of bunched up between five and eight. There's three games in the loss column between five and eight. In this league, you go on a three-game losing streak and somebody goes on a three-game winning streak, and it can all change in a week.

"You never know. If we get on a roll and Dallas stumbles, we could possibly end up with home-court advantage. I know it's five games in the loss column, but it's possible. And you want to go into the playoffs playing your best. And if we go in playing our best, it doesn't matter who we match up with. We can play with anybody."

On that, they could agree.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com
Rockets Summary

RESOURCES
TONIGHT: NEW ORLEANS HORNETS AT ROCKETS
• Rockets update: Playing sixth game in nine days. ... Returning home after winning three games of a four-game trip that began in New Orleans last week.
• The Rockets must: Protect the defensive boards. Jamaal Magloire, P.J. Brown, David West and especially former Blinn standout Chris Andersen have given the Rockets trouble on the glass.
• Hornets update: Have been off since Monday. ... Since the Rockets' win in New Orleans last week, the Hornets won in Memphis and took the Cavaliers to overtime. They have averaged 102 points on 48.4 percent shooting and 51.6 percent 3-point shooting since the loss to the Rockets. ... Former Rockets forward and first-round pick Bostjan Nachbar had 17 points in the overtime loss to the Cavaliers and hit a 13-foot turnaround jumper that forced the extra period. He is making 41.6 percent of his 3-pointers this season, a career high.
• The Hornets must: Hit perimeter shots. The Rockets took away the lane in New Orleans, but the Hornets had open looks.
• Check out: Yao Ming's rebounding. Besides keeping the Hornets off the glass, when Yao rebounds the rest of his game often seems to pick up, too.
JONATHAN FEIGEN
Loving the road
The Rockets' victory in Portland on Wednesday moved them to 22-15 on the road, the fifth-best road record in the NBA.

With four road games remaining, the Rockets have matched their fourth-most road wins in a season and are two shy of the second most in franchise history. (They won 27 road games in 1996-97.)

"We were 4-8 on the road and something clicked," Van Gundy said. "I don't know what it was, but since then we're 18-7. It's hard to do. It's also hard to lose as many home games as we have."

Easy does it
More than two weeks since he sprained right knee, Rockets forward Juwan Howard has yet to begin running.

He is scheduled to be evaluated Sunday to determine if he could move to the next stage of his rehabilitation.

"He's really doing strengthening," Rockets trainer Keith Jones said. "It stayed pretty sore for awhile. We couldn't push him too much. We'll have a better idea at the end of the week. We'll see what he can do."

Howard was initially ruled out for at least four weeks, and Jones said he has not changed the timetable.

"I feel badly for Juwan because he's put so much into the season, accepted what he needed to do for this team (and) played great for the last two months," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "I don't feel sorry for us because we have more than enough capable players. We can rebound despite him being a big factor in why we turned around our rebounding."

Having a ball
Days after a confidence-building session with Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, Yao Ming seemed more sure of himself Wednesday, even before his nifty ballhandling to elude Shareef Abdur-Rahim in Portland.

Whether in evidence or triggered by a fast start, Yao said he felt more at ease after his early success on the boards against the Trail Blazers.

"I felt more confident," he said. "In the first couple minutes, I got a couple offensive boards and I think maybe that helped. I am really frustrated about my rebounding, a 7-foot-6 guy cannot grab more than 10, even nine rebounds. That really makes me feel frustrated."

He did not, however, seem burdened by any frustration when he showed his skills with the ball.

"I just felt (Abdur-Rahim) coming from the left and was sure it was not my teammate, so I just did it," Yao said of his behind-the-back move. "I didn't know what would happen after that, maybe a turnover, maybe a behind-the-back, or maybe Jeff would yell at me, 'What are you doing?' "

Van Gundy offered no complaints. He said Yao's early rebounding seemed to get him going.

"He played great," Van Gundy said. "Whatever happened, we can obviously use that. We need to get him back on the boards somehow. He can combine the scoring and getting rebounds. When you're working, usually the game works for you, and he was working on the boards."

 

Anybody know the magic number?