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Sunday March 25, 2007 6:57 PM


Making a Point


Alston's primary focus is leading Rockets back to the playoffs


Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer

HOUSTON -- Rafer Alston is well aware that his play is heavily scrutinized on sports radio call-in shows and fan message boards.

Does such criticism bother him?

Not really.

"I don't really pay attention to them," Alston said. "I don't worry about that stuff."

He's more concerned with helping lead the Rockets back into the postseason.

Despite receiving little love on radio waves or fan forums, Alston has managed to ignore concerns over his streaky shooting and lead the Rockets to the fifth best record in the Western Conference.

Under his guidance, the Rockets are pushing the Utah Jazz for home court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs and could clinch a playoff spot Sunday night when they visit the Hornets in Oklahoma City. The Rockets (44-25) can book a postseason spot with a win and a Golden State loss.

Alston hasn't received much credit for putting his team in such a position.

Since he is shooting 37.8 percent from the field and has endured his share of off-shooting nights, the Rockets point guard has drawn criticism for his up-and-down shooting.

Alston understands some of the concern. However, he wouldn't mind being acknowledged for the things that he does do to help his team.

"I understand I'm a streaky shooting point guard," Alston said. "But one thing I'm not is a high-turnover guy. I defend the ball and I make plays."

The Rockets have seen enough of Alston to know that he's played a major role in the team's march to the postseason.

While he isn't drilling three-pointers every night, Alston is in charge of organizing the Rockets' offense. He typically receives signals from Jeff Van Gundy on the sideline and orchestrates where guys should be on the floor by pointing them in the right direction.

No game, perhaps, showed Alston's value more than a Feb. 3 performance against the Hornets. That's because the point guard missed most of it.

After being ejected in the first quarter for receiving two technical fouls, the Rockets struggled to get into an offensive flow and ended up being dealt an 87-74 home loss. Houston shot 37 percent and matched a season low with 30 first-half points.

Rockets forward Chuck Hayes said Alston's ability to run the offensive is invaluable.

"He runs our offense and gets us into sets," Hayes said. "Streaky shooter? Everybody in the league is a streaky shooter. There are very few pure shooters in this league. Some nights, a guy is on. Some nights, a guy is off. So people getting on Rafer for being a streaky shooter is nonsense."

Alston, however, rarely gets much love even on the nights when he is canning open jumpers.

"It's interesting to me that when Rafer plays (well), it's overlooked and when Rafer plays bad, he is the main reason we lose," Van Gundy said last week. "That's many people's perspective."

Alston has been on a roll of late. Since leading his team to a home win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 14, the point guard is averaging 14 points per game on 54.4 percent shooting. He's been just as good beyond the arc, sinking 53.6 percent of his attempts.

With those recent numbers, Alston is now shooting 37.5 percent from three-point range -- his best rate since 2002-03 -- and has already sunk a career-high 162 three-pointers this season.

Still, the point guard wishes his shooting numbers were better considering the work that he put in over the summer.

"I shot about 500 three-pointers per day," Alston said. "My shot was looking great in the summer and that's the disappointing thing about this season. I thought I would come in and shoot a higher percentage. It hasn't worked out. But of late, I've been shooting at high clip. I just want to continue from there and keep moving forward."

He certainly isn't worried about proving people wrong.

"The most important thing is we're winning," Alston said. "People, not just in this organization but around the league, recognize we're winning with the guys that we have. And that's most important statistic of all."