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Saturday December 13, 2008 2:02 AM

T-Mac Makes Victorious Return


Rockets' star nearly records triple-double in 119-108 win over Warriors

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Click here to listen to the Houston Rockets postgame highlight show.

Houston - What a difference a rested and rejuvenated Tracy McGrady makes.

Playing for the first time in nearly three weeks, T-Mac returned to the court in fine fashion, falling just one assist shy of a triple-double in the Rockets 119-108 victory over Golden State.

Perhaps most encouraging: McGrady, still in the process of recovering from offseason knee surgery, played without any sort of visible limp and even ditched the shoulder and knee braces with which he’d been playing during the opening month of the season.

In nearly 35 minutes of action, T-Mac totaled 24 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists as Houston pounded the Warriors for the second week in row en route to its 15th victory of the season.

“I felt pretty good,” said McGrady after the game. “The second half I came out a little rusty, but for the most part I felt pretty good. I was trying to do a little extra tonight for us to get a win. I was not tired, my body felt good, I was in a nice little groove tonight.”

The game actually was tight until the Rockets began taking control in the early stages of the second quarter. Carl Landry jumpstarted the surge by blowing past Warriors’ rookie Anthony Randolph for a vicious dunk which left the rim quivering in his wake. Landry scored the first 8 points of the frame for Houston, and shortly after his jam he helped key an 11-0 run which gave the Rockets their first real cushion of the contest.

“The 11-0 run got us the lead at halftime, and that is what we talked about, we had to keep playing defensively,” said Coach Rick Adelman. “If we made them take tough shots, then we are going to open it up because I thought they were going to have a tough time stopping us at the basket.”

Truth be told, Golden State has trouble stopping everyone at the basket, which is why the Warriors came into the contest giving up a league-high 110.8 points per game. So it came as no surprise that the Rockets continued to slice and dice the marshmallow-soft Warrior ‘D’ in the third quarter. But this time, the other half of Houston’s always-dependable power forward combo sparked the Rockets run. Luis Scola came out of the halftime break on fire, pouring in 10 of Houston’s first 12 points as his club continued to pull away.

All told, Scola and Landry combined for a whopping 37 points and 13 rebounds on the night. Their success was no coincidence; with Golden State throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Yao Ming (19 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks) in a futile attempt to shut down the big man, the dynamic duo knew they’d have plenty of scoring opportunities coming their way.

Said Landry: “We went over a game plan that we thought Golden State might [follow], and what Luis and I should do if Yao Ming was fronted. Luis, myself, and my teammates did a good job of getting in the right position, and finding Yao when the opportunity was there.

“We played together as a team tonight, we moved the ball and helped on the defensive end, and did a good job of sprinting back in transition and making it hard for them tonight by not giving them anything easy.”

With a sizeable advantage at its disposal for the majority of the second half, Houston kept things in cruise control as T-Mac and company combined to keep Golden State at bay. The Warriors did manage to trim their deficit to 11 in the final minutes of the fourth, but were never able to pose a legitimately serious threat to the Rockets who, with the win, improved their record to 15-8 and moved a half game ahead of San Antonio for first place in the Southwest Division.

Quotes

Rick Adelman

“I was hoping that we would open it up and keep the twenty point lead, and get [McGrady] out, and everybody else, but we kept making it interesting by them cutting the lead down. I thought he looked fine, he almost had a triple double so that’s pretty good.”

Tracy McGrady

Yao Ming and I had that discussion about sitting out the 4th quarter, but things didn’t really go our way, so we had to go back in and close the game out. When we play together, we play solid, we can make things happen like that (11-0 run at the end of the second quarter) on the offensive end. But we were really trying to stop the Warriors from making an offensive run, because they have a lot of scorers over there and they can put up points very quickly. It was good for us to get a little cushion because we knew they were going to come right back at us.”

Warriors Coach Don Nelson: “Well there you have it. We didn’t make enough shots for us to win, missed too many defensive assignments, I thought, to give ourselves a real good chance. I thought we played hard and tried and did a lot of good things and moved the ball. Coach has no complaints about the game, I enjoyed the game actually and thought we competed. I had to keep an eye out for tomorrow, and that’s why I subbed with nine minutes to go, or whatever it was.

On Rob Kurz: “But I thought the young guys came in and really played hard I thought Rob (Kurz) was sensational and got his first prolonged chance to play, and he’s been playing like that in practice all year. He is probably more ready than any of my other rookies to actual get into an NBA game. I haven’t been playing him very much, but maybe I should think about doing that a little bit more. I thought he was very good, knows every play, he’s just a very alert player. So anyway I was very pleased that he got an opportunity and played very well.”

On Stephen Jackson: I think Jack (Stephen Jackson) is a little bit more left handed than we talk about because he does like to go left and use that left hand, even though the injury is on his left and he is right handed player he uses his left a lot.

On Ball Movement: When you move the ball and make the extra pass two things are likely to happen; you’re likely a few more turnovers but also you’re not in control of who has the opportunity to score. And we’re trying to figure that out a little bit, but I think some guys are trying to do the right thing. Jamal (Crawford) is off a little bit right now, but that’s okay because he’s trying to do the right thing and move the ball and that’s what I’m after as a coach right now.

Rob Kurz: (On Guarding Yao) “It was obviously a great experience for me, he’s an unbelievable players, one of the best players in the world. I was trying to make it uncomfortable for him. You know he’s going to score, buy you’ve just gotta make it hard on him.”

(On not having Wright and Turiaf tonight or tomorrow) “For me I just try to bring energy every night. If my number is called I try to go out there and do whatever I can to help this team. We needed those guys tonight, but it’s gonna be on us to step up and go to Denver and do whatever we can to get a win.”

Anthony Morrow: “They are a great team. They are very tough to guard. It’s one where we gotta continue to play hard and just do what we do. We showed a lot of heart at the end, so hopefully we can build on this and take some momentum to Denver.”

(On guarding T-Mac) “Obviously, he’s a guy I looked up to growing up. So it was fun, but at the same time I took a business approach. You’ve gotta go out there and play hard no matter who you’re matching up against. It’s all about getting that experience and competing everyday.”

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