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Monday January 19, 2009 7:47 PM

Rockets Hang On For Wild Win Over Denver


Yao's 31 points help carry Houston to 115-113 victory

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Houston - The Rockets offense ran smoothly, scored efficiently and took care of the ball. Ultimately, though, it was still their defense – and a little good fortune – which helped them prevail for the fifth time in six games.

With his club clinging to the slimmest of margins during the final seconds, Chuck Hayes drew a key charge on Denver’s Linas Kleiza, then nervously watched with the rest of his teammates as Kenyon Martin missed a pair of free throws to tie moments later, allowing Houston to hold on for a thrilling 115-113 victory Monday afternoon at Toyota Center.

The frantic finish seemed only appropriate for a game filled with offensive fireworks and questionable calls from start to finish. Many of the disputes on both sides centered around Yao Ming, who picked up a technical foul himself for arguing a non-call mid-way through the fourth quarter. But that ‘T’ only served to further motivate Houston’s big man, as he carried the Rockets offensively down the stretch on his way to scoring a game-high 31 points.

“I was mad the whole game,” said a much more at ease Yao in the postgame dressing room. “I was sitting on the bench and that’s not helping the team. That’s my opinion. I feel I got some bad calls.

“[But] I didn’t want the way I play to be changed by those calls. I still need to attack the rim. I still need to defend.”

After the game, Shane Battier came to his teammate’s defense.

“When Yao’s that angry, I think the referees needs to look at themselves and go, ‘This is Yao Ming getting angry – is it him or is it us?’ Yao doesn’t usually complain too much, so when he’s upset he usually has a pretty good case. But he used that emotion in a positive way and was a force down the stretch.”

The game was played at a breakneck pace right from the opening tip as both teams seemed to regard defense with an ample amount of disdain during the first half of play. Houston and Denver each poured in 36 points in the opening frame, setting Rockets season-highs in both points scored and points allowed for the first quarter.

Not much changed during the next twelve minutes either as Denver went on to shoot a jaw-dropping 76.5% from the field in the second quarter. With neither team showing any inclination to protect the paint, both clubs mercilessly attacked the rim and scored with ease. The end result: Denver took a 68-65 lead into halftime and the Rockets resolved to make some changes.

“We came in at halftime and we knew that our paint defense was poor,” said Battier. “We were allowing penetration and they were doing a good job of finding the open man. We just resolved to take away their paint shots and played better defense in the second half.”

Houston followed through on that gameplan and reaped the benefits – though not without hitting a major road bump along the way. Yao picked up his fourth foul with 9:55 remaining in the third quarter, meaning the Rockets would be forced to play without their All-Star center for a large portion of the frame. But Luis Scola and Von Wafer came to the rescue, scoring 13 of Houston’s final 15 points in the quarter to help the Rockets turn an 8-point deficit into a three-point lead by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.

“We knew that with Yao out, everybody needed to be a part of the offense because that is the only way that we could survive in the game,” said Scola, who finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds. “Von hit a lot of shots and we moved the ball better.”

Befitting the up-and-down nature of the game, the fourth quarter turned into a back-and-forth affair as neither team managed to create any separation. J.R. Smith made it particularly difficult for Houston to pull away, as he locked-in from long range on his way to scoring 17 points in the frame. In fact, his trey brought the Nuggets within one at the 1:05 mark and set the stage for the heroics of Hayes in the final seconds.

Denver got the ball back with about 20 seconds left after a rare Yao miss, and worked the ball around to Kleiza on the ensuing possession. The Nuggets’ forward drove into the lane and dished to Nene for a dunk, but Kleiza’s momentum carried him right into Hayes, who had slid over just in time to take the charge and preserve the Rockets’ lead.

“That was a great play by Chuck with the game on the line,” said Battier. “Your tendency with the game on the line is to forget about your principals and Chuck made a huge play. When people hit big shots, they talk about making a big offensive play, but that was a big-time defensive play in crunch time.”

The Rockets weren’t in the clear yet, though. Aaron Brooks made one-of-two free throws with six seconds left, giving Denver plenty of time to tie or take the lead. But Martin was fouled on a foray to the rim and missed both free throws – the second one intentionally – allowing Houston to escape with the wild win.

“Today we had everybody in this locker room’s effort,” said Yao. “Tonight’s win proved we are playing the right way right now. Of course we are still not perfect because we’re missing people right now, and we still had a lot of mistakes in this game, but we are improving.

“Half of the season is over already. We’ve been hurt by injury since the start of the season. We have so many of the bench guys step up and help the team get on the right track. They really give us confidence in the future when our main guys come back. We have a really strong group.”

QUOTES

ROCKETS COACH RICK ADELMAN

(On the win) “It was a good win against a good team. We got a couple of breaks before that (the foul on Kenyon Martin at the end of the game), luckily Brent got him before he made the layup at the end, but it was a really satisfying win.

(On Chuck Hayes defense at the end of the game) “Well, that's Chuck. That's what he does. He is the best defensive player we have amongst our big people. He always makes the right play and we have every confidence in him in that situation at the end.”

(On Yao in the 4th quarter) “He was terrific. He made some real positive plays. On a couple of plays I thought that he made were pretty good but didn't go his way, but you can say that about both ends of the court for both teams. I thought he was very aggressive in what he was doing. He found people. They made a couple of nice plays, Jones coming along the base line and stealing it from him. Overall, that's why I sat him down in most of the 3rd quarter, because I needed him in the 4th quarter.”

( Yao overcoming certain calls): Once he caught the ball, they really had no answers for him. You like to see him have that fire – maybe not to the extent of getting a technical, but the same thing happened to Kenyon Martin. I think both teams were playing very hard. But Yao was the guy we wanted to go through in that whole fourth quarter.

I think you just have to understand that it’s going to go both ways. You have to stay with it. You’re not going to get all the calls. Mentally against that team, with their shooters, you have to keep your concentration because [guys like] Smith can shoot it from anywhere and we made about two or three big mistakes guarding him that cost us and got them back in the game. But that’s what you get better at as a team. It’s not only physical, it’s mentally, too. You have to stay with it.

VON WAFER

(On the increased energy affecting the chemistry of the team) “I think it is bringing us together and we are beating pretty good teams. We just got to keep it going. We have a tough team coming in here on Wednesday and these games are going to be big coming down the stretch in April, so we need to get them.”

(On playing against J.R. Smith) “He's a tough player. J.R. (smith) and I used to battle a lot before the games in Denver. We used to battle a lot in the summer so I real familiar with his game. J.R. is a very good player.”

CHUCK HAYES

I think the play was an iso for Billups. But when Chauncey kicked it out, I was in the middle of running across the lane to go pick up my man Martin. And as I ran across the lane, I saw Kleiza coming so I just stopped and hoped that he wouldn’t jump to the side and [instead] just run me over. When he hit me, I knew I had to sell it so as I’m falling I’m hoping to hear a whistle. They called the charge and that’s my job. Coach told me to be ready.

RAFER ALSTON

(On the game) “It took both teams a little while longer to wake up and realize this was a 1:00 PM game instead of 7:30. Both teams played offense for one half. In the second half everyone came alive and we started defending the ball. It made it a little difficult for them to get to the basket, contested shots and we found out that that's the best and right way to play them.”

(On going to Yao in the 4th) “If you noticed we just kept pounding it and pounding it in there and we just lived with the outcome.”

“I think every game from here on out is so tough. You have to play it almost like a playoff game.”

YAO MING

I didn’t have any defensive rebounds today. I had the same number of defensive rebounds as Dikembe.

(On the Rockets 2nd half defense) “Our defense in the second half was key. In the first half, they ( Denver) shot way too many layups. I think we did a better job in the second half.”

(On the Nuggets physical defense on him) “They put a lot of effort in there. I could feel that they really wanted to guard me and tried to push me away.”

BRENT BARRY

(On the Rockets 2nd half comeback) “I think it was one of those games where you kind of had to claw your way back into it. It's kind of like the person who is going to score last is going to win this afternoon.”

(On the 4th quarter intensity) “It picked up a little bit. It was really important for us in this stretch of games not having guys we normally go to down the stretch at the end of the game where we get the ball to Tracy or Ron. It's important to figure out ways that we're going to win and be effective and it's important for our club to have close games like this during this stretch while they're out.”

NUGGETS COACH GEORGE KARL

(on the game) “We should have won the game. (Were you disappointed with the charge call?) “There were a lot of other adjectives you could have used. Our big guys battled Yao all game and got beat up pretty good. He got away with an awful lot. I thought our guys did a good job.”

(on the loss) “There are losses that are good losses and I thought we played very well. We had a lot of good performances. It was our best passing game in weeks. Our defense wasn’t very good. The game had a good edge to it.”

(on Chuck Hayes’ charge) “He came in and made a great play. We’re going to go home without a win.

J.R. SMITH

(on Von Wafer) “He’s playing good and I an really proud of him. He has the talent and I’m glad he is getting a chance to play.”

(on the charge call) “The refs made the call and we can’t change it.”

(on his shooting) “I’ve been in a shooting slump but I keep shooting in practice to get my rhythm. I try and score points in the quickest amount of time.”

NENE

(on the last play) “I didn’t get to see the replay. It was a tough call and that was the ballgame.”

(on the game) “Both teams played good. Yao is big and long and he has a lot of skill. Both teams deserve to win but they got the win and we didn’t. Everybody on our front line focused on stopping Yao because he is so good.”

LINAS KLEIZA

(on the charge call at the end of the game ) “It was a tough call. I thought it was a flop. I didn’t feel like I hit him. It’s done.”

NOTES

Today’s attendance of 18,199 marks the 14th sellout of the season at Toyota Center , which includes the last eight consecutive home games.

Houston set its season high in field goals made by connecting on 46-of-90 (.511) shots in a dramatic 115-113 win over Denver . The Rockets have now reached .500 from the field in three straight games (.530 on 1/13/09, .565 on 1/17/09 and .511 on 1/19/09), marking the longest such streak of the season.

The Rockets (58) and Nuggets (50) each recorded 50 points in the paint today, which was the fourth time this season for Houston and its opponent to both reach that plateau in the same game.

The Nuggets nailed 9-of-17 (.529) from beyond the arc, matching Houston’s opponent season best in 3-point field goal percentage set by the Lakers at Los Angeles (.529 on 11/9/08).

The Rockets and Nuggets each reached 36 points in the opening 12 minutes of play, setting both Houston’s season high and the opponent season best for points in the first quarter. The previous highs were 34 by Houston vs. Utah (12/27/08) and 33 twice by an opponent (last by Kings against Rockets on 12/19/08 at Houston ). The prior highest combined score in the first quarter of a Houston game this season was the Mavericks 33 and the Rockets 32 at Dallas (10/30/08).

Houston went on to score a season-best 65 first-half points, surpassing its previous high of 62 done twice before (last on 12/5/08 vs. Golden State ). The Rockets now own seven 60-point halves on the season. Houston had just 10 such halves in all of 2007-08.

Denver added 68 points over the opening two quarters of play and now own the top-two first halves against the Rockets this season. The Nuggets as scored 61 first-half points at Houston (12/16/08).

Yao Ming posted a game-high 31 points (13-19 FG, 5-7 FT) for his fifth 30-point outing of the season. Yao, who was 12-for-12 from the field vs. Miami (1/17/09), missed on his first attempt today to snap his streak.

Rafer Alston finished with 18 points (7-15 FG, 3-7 3FG) and a season-best 11 assists for his first double-double of 2008-09. Alston’s performance stands as the highest assist total for the Rockets this season.

Von Wafer chipped in with 18 points (7-17 FG) to extend his streak of double-digit scoring performances to nine games (1/2/09-1/19/09), while Brent Barry tied his season high in points with 11 (3-4 3FG).

J.R. Smith recorded 24 points (5-7 3FG) and seven rebounds, including 17 fourth-quarter points (6-10 FG, 4-6 3FG) to mark the best scoring quarter by an opponent this season.

Nenê notched 23 points (9-15 FG) and 12 rebounds for his second double-double against the Rockets this season. Nenê also had 17 points (7-13 FG) and 10 rebounds in the first meeting at Denver (11/30/08).

Kenyon Martin scored 22 points (9-17 FG), marking his fourth 20-point performance of the season.

Chauncey Billups had 13 points (3-12 FG) and 12 assists, equaling the highest opponent assist total at Toyota Center this season set by Chris Paul (12 on 11/15/08).

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