Brooks, Landry lead Rockets past Warriors

By By Michael Murphy, for NBA.com
Posted Wednesday February 3, 2010 12:21AM

HOUSTON -  (NBA.com exclusive) -- After getting beat up during much of their disappointing homestand, Tuesday's game against the Golden State Warriors had to be like a welcome day at the beach for the Rockets.

And the Rockets took advantage, spending most of the night kicking sand in the Warriors' faces while coasting to a 119-97 victory. The win, which came before 12,845 fans at Toyota Center, finally wrapped up a 2-4 homestand.

But the Rockets, who had played in 16 straight games that were decided by 10 points or fewer, were able to finally relax and enjoy a rare laugher.

"Everyone needs (a blowout) every now and then," said Rockets forward Shane Battier. "It was a fun game to play in for us, and we can't say that about the games we've played in over the last four or five weeks."

Indeed, Golden State is one of the few teams that the undersized Rockets can overpower, and they did just that, leading by as many as 28 points before picking up their ninth straight win over the Warriors.

Over the course of that nine-game spree over Golden State, the Rockets lit up the defense-deficient Warriors for an average of 114.6 points per game. And, except for a brief Golden State run in the second quarter, this game was no different.

"I can't remember the last time I sat on the bench at the end of a game," said Houston point guard Aaron Brooks, who filled up the stat sheet with 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists. "That felt good. It felt good to just sit there and relax, watching Joey (Dorsey, an NBDL call-up) run the court. We haven't had a game like that probably since Yao (Ming) has been here (playing)."

The Rockets didn't need Yao in this one.

Taking advantage of Golden State's propensity for jumping the passing lanes with steals in mind, the Rockets worked backdoor plays and dives almost to perfection, finishing with 56 points in the paint (to 38 for the Warriors).

"They're a team that defensively goes for a lot of steals -- (Stephen) Curry and (Monta) Ellis are in the top 10 in the league in steals -- and they rely on that to get them in the open court and get easy opportunities," said Houston coach Rick Adelman. "We kept saying that if you're just solid and smart, and make the right cuts, you're going to get easy baskets."

The injury-crippled Warriors, who have three NBDL players in their rotation, at least tried to make a game of it. After falling behind by 21 points in the first quarter, Golden State, led by the smoking-hot Ellis, outscored the Rockets 37-17 over the next 10 minutes.

Ellis put on a spectacular one-man show with 23 of Golden State's points during the surge, and then ended the wild run by hitting a 3-pointer with 2:09 to play in the half, trimming the deficit to 50-49.

The Rockets scored the last nine points of the half stall the rally, and then completely stifled the Golden State offense by paying more attention to detail in the second half. The Rockets made sure that either Battier or Trevor Ariza, both 6-8 and defense-minded, were sticking close to the 6-3 Ellis, limiting the number of good looks he was getting.

"That's the point with a player like him, who's extremely quick and can get to the basket and create things," Ariza said. "You have to always know where he is. Everybody has to help guard guys like that, and I think that in the second half we did a pretty good job on him."

Ellis, the league's sixth-leading scorer, still got his points, finishing with 34 on 13-of-22 shooting. But only seven of those points came in the second half, with Ellis squeezing off a mere five shots.

"We were able to use the rope-a-dope defense on Ellis," Adelman quipped. "He got so tired he didn't want to shoot anymore, so that worked. The way he was scoring in the second quarter, they (the Warriors) had only 24 points, but it seemed like they had 40."

With Ellis under wraps, the Warriors couldn't muster enough offense from the rest of their depleted roster to mount another threat. Rookie Stephen Curry scored 14 points, but shot just 6-of-18 and was shredded by Brooks at the other end of the floor.

"We just weren't very good," said Golden State coach Don Nelson. "Our D-Leaguers (Anthony Tolliver, Coby Karl and Chris Hunter) looked like D-Leaguers. Our rookie (Curry) didn't have a very good game. Monta had a very good game, but he just didn't have any help."

The Rockets, meanwhile, got across-the-board contributions.

Brooks had his fourth straight game of 20-plus scoring, and his 24-point total was matched by Carl Landry, who registered his 18th game of at least 20 points. Ariza didn't shoot particularly well (6-of-16), but played active defense and finished with 18 points. Battier added 12 points and Luis Scola had 10, while Chuck Hayes finished with 13 rebounds, leading the Rockets to a commanding -- and quite rare -- 57-35 edge off the glass.

"We felt that (rebounding) was something we could do at both ends of the court," Adelman said. "We had hurt them in the first two games on the boards (90-78). We wanted to make them a jump-shooting team, and if we did that, they're not a great offensive-rebounding team and we should control it."

The Rockets now get a brief break before heading to Memphis for Friday's game with the Grizzlies. And they'll be able to rest a bit easier after psyche-massaging blowout.

"It's been a long time since we've been able to have laugh and have fun, and just play loose on the basketball court," Battier said. "It was a nice win."

• Warriors: Azubuike, Bell, Claxton, Randolph, Wright
• Rockets: McGrady, Ming, Taylor

• Warriors: --
• Rockets: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: Toyota Center, Houston, TX
• Officials: #34 Marc Davis, #60 David Guthrie, #51 Leroy Richardson
• Attendance: 12845
• Duration: 2:8