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Saturday May 3, 2008 1:45 AM


Jazz, Williams knock Rockets out of the playoffs


Game 6: Utah 113, Houston 91

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Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
The Rockets streaked into the playoffs after overcoming a series of unfortunate events.

On Friday night, the NBA's most resilient team finally met a challenge that it couldn't recover from.

Despite making a habit of overcoming long odds over the course of the season, the Rockets couldn't mount a historic comeback in their first-round playoff series as the Utah Jazz pulled away for a series-clinching 113-91 victory in Game 6 at EnergySolutions Arena.

The Jazz eliminated the Rockets for the second straight season in the first round and move on to meet the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Rockets had their season end after making a remarkable run to get into the postseason. Houston overcame a 15-17 start to the season and managed to reel off an impressive 22-game winning streak despite losing All-Star center Yao Ming in the middle of it.

But even after thriving throughout the season when their backs were against the wall, the Rockets couldn't recover from a 3-1 postseason series deficit against Utah.

"It’s tough, anytime you have a lot of confidence in your team and your chances and you fall short," Rockets guard Tracy McGrady said. "It's a hell of a ball club over there. I thought we did some great things to put ourselves in a great situation to try to make this a series."

The Rockets were eventually undone by Utah's balanced scoring -- and their own cold shooting.

With Deron Williams' hot hand leading the way, the Jazz canned 10 three-pointers and had a series-best seven players score in double figures. Utah, which came into Friday's game averaging a mere 86 points in the playoffs, surpassed the 100-point mark for the first time in the series.

Williams netted 25 points after sinking six three-pointers and Mehmet Okur added 19 points and 13 rebounds.

On the other end, the Rockets were struggling to find scoring options.

McGrady paced the his team with a series-best 40 points and 10 rebounds. But the All-Star shooting guard scored only 12 points in the second half and got little help from his teammates. Luis Scola had 15 points and nine rebounds, but no one else wearing a Houston jersey finished in double figures. The Rockets shot a collective 39 percent.

That wasn't enough for the Rockets to keep up with the Jazz.

"(McGrady) didn’t have much help out there," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "He was great and he's not the reason why we lost this game. The rest of us couldn't get anything going and he was a one-man wrecking ball out there. He kept us in the game. If he didn't do what he did in the first half, it would have been even uglier."

McGrady tried to carry the Rockets, rallying his team back from a 19-point deficit in the first half. He scored 16 of his 28 first-half points in the second quarter as Houston went into halftime only trailing 58-54.

Unfortunately, the Rockets lost their starting point guard before the break. Rafer Alston, who missed the first two games of the series with a hamstring injury, limped off the floor with five minutes remaining in the half after turning his ankle on a drive. He did not return for the second half.

Without Alston guiding the offense, the Rockets never got into an offensive rhythm in the second half. Houston only scored 11 points in the third period, clanking 18 of 22 attempts.

"We came into halftime and realized Rafer wasn't coming out for the second half," McGrady said. "Things kind of changed. We're a different ball club when he's not in our lineup."

Unsurprinsingly, the Jazz took advantage.

Utah opened the third quarter with a game-determining 20-5 run. Williams, who had been quiet in the first half, swished four three-pointers over a six-minute span to lead the charge, boosting Utah's lead back to 19 points with just over four minutes left in the period.

The Rockets couldn't narrow that gap again as Utah had little trouble getting inside for point-blank shots. By the fourth quarter, Utah's lead had stretched to as much as 26 points.

Williams said he took it upon himself to stretch out that advantageafter watching the Rockets recover from big deficit once again in the series.

"Yeah, I felt we let a big lead slip away," Williams said. "We had games all series where we had 14-point leads, 15-point leads and they come back and the same thing tonight. It was a little frustrating and I wanted to try and open the game back up and I just got hot. Shots started feeling good so I just let it go."

The Rockets still haven't made it beyond the first round of the playoffs since 1997.

But even with their latest playoff setback, the Rockets could still see some positives from a season in which they had a ton to overcome.

"We just ran out of gas," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We couldn't make another run. I'm very proud of our team."