<P>By RICHARD JUSTICE <P>Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle <P>Until further notice, we will not debate their character. <P>Off the table as well are questions about desire and courage that have hung like a mushroom cloud over these Rockets in recent years. <P>Teams with those issues do not do what the Rockets did Sunday afternoon. <P>They do not rally from 10 points down in the fourth quarter. They do not push a playoff-tested opponent to the edge. They do not stay close on an afternoon when they do not get calls or breaks. <P>In the end, the Rockets lost again. This time, though, it looked different and felt different. <P>It did not feel like the team that has alternately amused and infuriated us. It felt, finally, like a team growing up. <P>And yet ... <P>With a chance to win a game that would have changed the way the rest of the NBA looks at them, the Rockets were beaten 92-88 in overtime at Toyota Center. <P>They lost, in part, because they got unlucky at the end of a tremendous fourth-quarter rally. After the scoreboard briefly flashed the wrong score, Jim Jackson held the ball with five seconds left in regulation instead of trying to score what would have been the winning basket. He had looked up moments earlier and seen the Rockets were leading 82-81. He did not look back after the scoreboard was changed, correctly, to 81-81. <P>"If I'd known it was tied," Jackson said, "I would have driven to the basket." <P>In the end, a scoreboard mistake did not cost the Rockets a victory. But it did not help. The Rockets lost also because they came undone late in overtime. <P>Leading by four points, they could not hold on. <P>So torch them for the right things. <P>Kobe Bryant stripped Jackson of the ball and scored on a breakaway. Yao Ming committed a silly foul that allowed Karl Malone to convert a three-point play. Cuttino Mobley missed a jumper that might have iced the game. <P>Finally, near the end, with the Rockets trailing by three, Steve Francis turned the ball over. <P>If this all sounds familiar, it was not. <P>This time, the Rockets' failings were physical instead of mental. <P>This time, they proved they will answer a shove with a shove. <P>Francis got in Malone's face. Moments later, Bostjan Nachbar was ready to invite Malone outside. <P>And there was Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy stepping toward the Lakers' bench and screaming an obscenity at coach Phil Jackson. <P>The Rockets always have talked a good game, but this time they responded with their play as well in rallying from 14 down in the second half to force overtime. <P>They lost not because they lacked guts or heart, but because the Lakers simply have more physical talent, because last summer they added two more future Hall of Famers -- Malone and Gary Payton -- to the two -- Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal -- they had. <P>No team is ever likely to amass this kind of talent. So as we pick at another Rockets defeat, don't forget that what Malone did to them he has been doing to others for almost two decades. <P>All he did was remind the Rockets what they don't have. Whenever this season ends, the hunt for a bona fide power forward will begin. <P>Without one, the Rockets were forced to improvise. With their attention on O'Neal, Malone went for 30 points. <P>O'Neal ended up with 17, but if the Rockets had paid more attention to Malone, O'Neal might have had 40. <P>The Rockets could not play another game in which the need for a big-time power forward was emphasized more. Kelvin Cato and Yao did their part, but the Rockets won't be a contender until they have more size and rebounding ability. <P>As for Francis, he continued to use this series to display all his marvelous skills. He finished Sunday's game with 17 points, nine assists and five rebounds. <P>More than any other Rocket, he is tied to the bottom line, and more than at any other time in his career, he seems to feel it. He had reacted with unbridled joy at the end of that victory in Game 3 on Friday. Sunday, he seemed near tears after fouling out with 6.4 seconds left in overtime. <P>He buried his face in a towel, then stared at the scoreboard in disbelief. As the seconds ticked away, he stood on the baseline, hands on hips. <P>"We just can't get over that hump," Francis said. "I know you guys aren't going to believe it, but we just don't get any calls. We haven't earned the right to expect them. We have to play through it, and it's tough. We don't get the respect we deserve, but at the same time, that's something you have to earn. We haven't done that." <P>Francis paused and seemed to struggle for the right words. With the Rockets trailing the best-of-seven series 3-1, he knows their season could end Wednesday in Los Angeles. <P>"It hurts," Francis said. "We're down right now, but we're not going to quit. I can promise you that." <P>For once, he did not have to convince anyone he was speaking from the heart.
