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Thursday November 27, 2008 0:26 AM

Pacers Stun Rockets With Fourth Quarter Rally


Rockets lose hearthbreaker 91-90



Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Click here to listen to the Rockets postgame highlight show.

Houston - Throughout the season’s opening month, the Indiana Pacers made a habit of blowing second half leads and suffering heartbreaking losses. For one night at least, they flipped the script; leaving the Rockets to pick up the pieces of their own broken hearts after a devastating 91-90 defeat.

Danny Granger capped Indiana’s 15-to-4 finishing kick with a tip-in of his own miss, then watched as Yao Ming was unable to convert down low amid a mass of bodies in the final seconds, leaving the Rockets (10-6) and Toyota Center crowd stunned by a result that seemed so improbable just minutes earlier.

The loss also snapped Houston’s three-game winning streak and ruined the return of Shane Battier who made his season debut after missing the first 15 games due to inflammation in his surgically-repaired left ankle.

“Just a disappointing loss,” lamented coach Rick Adelman after the game. “We made too many mistakes. Offensively, we didn’t finish the game. It’s too bad, because it’s a game we should have won, but Indiana kept coming at us and they made the plays and we didn’t.”

There were no minced words in an emotionally-charged Rockets’ locker room, either.

“It was low energy from the [opening] tip,” said Rafer Alston. “It’s been like that for almost every home game. It’s becoming embarrassing to the whole organization and the fans, and we have to find a way to find some energy, to come here and play a good brand of basketball for ourselves to win.

“It’s mind-boggling. You’d think after the kind of road trip we had, we’d come in this building and give these people something to cheer for, but we haven’t given them anything to cheer for since the start of the season and it hurts.”

Everything began falling apart for Houston after the Rockets had taken a ten-point lead with 5:40 remaining in the fourth quarter. Communication breakdowns on defense led to back-to-back three-pointers from a wide-open Troy Murphy, bringing the Pacers within four. Meanwhile, Houston’s offense got bogged down in a quagmire of turnovers, missed shots and mental errors, as the Rockets failed to convert a single field goal the rest of the way.

Yao (19 points, 10 rebounds) said his team simply let up.

“Six minutes to go and we were ahead by like ten points,” he sighed. “We stopped pushing. It’s like: ‘Okay, that’s ten points – that’s enough for the rest of the [game].’ If you’re going to have that kind of [mindset], you’re never going to be successful. We always finish the game too early. That’s the problem… To lose a game like this just makes my stomach hurt."

Up until the game's final five and a half minutes, the Rockets hadn't played particularly well, but they'd certainly done enough to seize control of the contest despite laboring through a first half marked by an offensive showcase which could only be appreciated by the folks at the Acme Brick Company. Houston shot just 33.3% from the field in the opening 24 minutes; its only saving grace coming in the form of a decisive 12-6 advantage on the offensive boards.

The Rockets established their dominance on the glass right from the outset, with Luis Scola leading the charge, collecting a whopping 10 rebounds in the first quarter alone. But Houston’s inability to hit a shot caught up with the club in the second frame. While the Rockets were mired in a 7-for-23 shooting slump, Indiana surged to a 47-44 halftime lead thanks to the solid play of Granger (16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) and rookie Brandon Rush (11 points).

So with his team in desperate need of a spark, Battier delivered the goods. The 8th year forward started the Rockets’ rally with a nifty play along the baseline, scoring his first bucket of the game to push Houston back on top 49-47. Next time down the floor, Batman was at it again; this time draining a three-pointer from the left corner, capping an 8-0 Rockets’ run to start a quarter in which Houston would go on to outscore the Pacers 30-17.

Quotes:

ROCKETS COACH RICK ADELMAN

(On this loss vs. the San Antonio loss) "I don't know if they are similiar. I think that they made a couple of shots. Yao was guarding ( Troy) Murphy and sometimes you've got to go out, you can't stay back when you're playing a shooter. Let your teammates help you, but those are things that happened. Even then, we should have finished the game. If we would have done enough offensively, not made mistakes then we should have won the game but we didn't. So, we have to learn from what went wrong and try to correct it next game."

(On Luis Scola) "He was very active. He got alot of offensive rebounds for us and did a nice job."

RAFER ALSTON

(On the last few seconds of the game) "We didn't compete like they competed. They came down and played hard defensively, came down and executed offensively and won the game. We came down with low energy, loafing around on defense. We came down fouling, not getting to our man, not understanding the strengths of our man and they scored and scored and scored."

(On the mental aspect of the loss) "The only mental part is not concetrating and not focusing in. That's the part that's been going on all season. The good part about that is we have more wins than losses. We are going to make the next step,start concentrating, focusing in and approaching each day with a sense of urgency."

YAO MING

(On the last play) "Ron got the ball to me and I tried to make the layup and I missed it. We could have done a whole lot better before that shot to win this game. You can't just rely on the last shot."

RON ARTEST

(On the loss ) "It's all on me. I didn't step up like I was supposed to but that's the good thing about games early in the season. You have a chance to run off a couple of wins but I missed alot of shots today. I missed some layups where I should have finished. I definitely take the blame for this one."

(On the last sequence) "I gave it to Yao. Yao was right there and ten out of ten times he will probably make that."

SHANE BATTIER

(On his minutes played) "I felt okay. My other ankle is hurting more. I sprained that late in the third quarter but overall I feel okay. I'm still unaware of my movement and my body and obviously my shot wasn't very good tonight. I was overall pleased with the debut."

We just didn’t play very good basketball. We didn’t deserve to win this game. Our offensive execution was very poor down the stretch. We knew exactly what they were going to do: they were going to front Yao and we just had a tough time getting him the ball and that shouldn’t be the case.

We had some miscommunications on the coverages. I thought for the most part we played a pretty good game defensively; they only shot 41% and we held them to 91 points. But we had some miscommunications on coverages and he was able to line up his three point shot and he really gave them a huge boost momentum-wise.

PACERS COACH JIM O’BRIEN

(on the game ) “It was a great win. We went small in the fourth quarter to try and get Yao away from the basket. Then it was hard when Houston substituted to get Yao back in and our team defense was excellent down the stretch. It was a great win on the road.. We played a physical brand of basketball and we fought with everything we had.”

(on his team’s play ) “We turned it up a notch in the fourth quarter. We fronted the low post and had a hand in their face and did a good job of challenging their shots. Their ( Houston) defense has been like ours was tonight. It was good to change the trend.”

T.J. FORD

(on the win) “It was a big win and we really needed it. It was a confidence booster and hopefully it will carry over to the next game. We were able to get stops when we needed it and that was key down the stretch.”

(on coming home to Houston) “It’s always fun to come home and get to play in front of friends and it is even better to get a win. That’s two wins in the last two years in Houston.”

TROY MURPHY

(on his 3-point shooting) “I was able to get loose and the guys found me at the top of the key. Our line up change helped get me open outside.”

(on the game) “We needed to get a win like this and hopefully it propels us. It was big to get this win on the road. We’ve had a lot of games when we have lost leads and it was good to hold on at the end.”

DANNY GRANGER

(on Indiana’s play) “As a team, we always have good defense. In the first half Houston beat us up on the boards. I used to have to practice against Ron (Artest) and it’s never any fun defending him or having him defend against you. Murphy’s 3’s gave us a big lift. It was great team defense down the stretch.”

Notes

Tonight’s attendance of 18,194 marks the fifth sellout of the season at Toyota Center.

The Rockets lost a 13-point lead, including a 10-point, fourth-quarter advantage in a 91-90 loss to the Pacers. It marked the second time this season the Rockets have dropped a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter (14-point advantage in fourth quarter of a 77-75 defeat on 11/14/08 at San Antonio).

Prior to getting outscored 27-16 over the final 12 minutes of play, Houston had matched its season high for third-quarter points in outscoring Indiana by 30-17 over that period. The Rockets connected on 9-of-20 (.450) field goals and 10-of-11 (.909) free throws in the third quarter, while limiting the Pacers to 7-of-22 (.318) from the floor.

Houston pulled down a season-high 57 rebounds tonight and placed three players in double-figure rebounding, with Luis Scola matching a career-best 18 boards, and Carl Landry and Yao Ming grabbing 10 rebounds each. It marked the first time the Rockets have had three players grab 10 or more rebounds in the same game since Chuck Hayes (13), Juwan Howard (10) and Yao (10) at Philadelphia (3/18/07).

Luis Scola finished with 15 points, a career-high-tying 18 rebounds (career-best 14 defensive) and a season-high four assists tonight. Scola, who originally set his career high of 18 boards (13 defensive) last season vs. Minnesota (3/26/08), nabbed 10 of his rebounds in the first quarter. The last Rockets player to record a double-digit rebounding total in a quarter was Yao Ming with 11 in the first quarter vs. Golden State (1/29/08). Scola also has two consecutive double-doubles after posting 11 points and 13 boards at Miami (11/24/08).

Yao Ming took four stitches to close a cut above his right eye, which he suffered in the first quarter of tonight’s game. Yao returned to post 19 points, 10 rebounds and one block for his team-leading eighth double-double of 2008-09.

Ron Artest, who made the start at guard tonight with Tracy McGrady sidelined, also had 19 points, five rebounds and four assists against his former team.

Landry came off the bench to record 15 points and 10 boards tonight. It marked his second double-double this season and the third of his career.

The Rockets placed Tracy McGrady (sore left knee) on the inactive list prior to tonight’s game and activated Shane Battier, who made his return to the lineup after missing the first 15 games (10/29/08-11/24/08) with inflammation in his left foot. Battier recorded five points and seven rebounds in 29:34 of action tonight.

Indiana matched Houston’s opponent high in blocks with 10 tonight (10 by Lakers on 11/9/08).

Troy Murphy matched his season high with 21 points (7-11 FG, 4-6 3FG) and pulled down 14 rebounds. Danny Granger added 16 points and a career-high six blocked shots. Similar to tonight, Granger and Murphy each scored 17 points to lead five Pacers in double-figure scoring last season at Houston (3/5/08).

Brandon Rush, who had 11 points (5-8 FG) tonight, has now posted 10 or more points in each of his last three games, including a career-high 18 points last night at Dallas (11/25/08).

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