OT loss to Lakers shakes Rockets

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.


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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."

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.

-- Staff reports


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The first three quotes by Yao, Francis, and JJ say alot. It appears to me, that they had the game won in their minds with still a minute and thirty seconds left in the game. I guess that's part of the coveted "Playoff Experience" you keep hearing over and over again. Let's hope this lesson (of closing out games) is burned into their brains and they bring it into games 5, 6, and 7 (?).