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Rockets can't keep pace with Jazz without Yao
Utah 97, Houston 89
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Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
HOUSTON -- Shortly before taking the floor on Sunday night, Rockets forward Luis Scola received word that he would be making his first career start.
He would have preferred to have gotten the nod under different circumstances.
"I was happy for it," Scola said. "But I wish Yao (Ming) would have played."
He was hardly alone.
With Yao missing his first game of the season with an upper respiratory infection, the Rockets struggled to generate any offense in the paint and failed to keep Deron Williams and the Utah Jazz out of it in the waning moments.
The result was a 97-89 setback to last season's playoff nemesis at Toyota Center.
The Rockets (24-20) had their four-game winning streak snapped and suffered a frustrating home loss to one of the teams they're chasing in the Western Conference standings. Houston is now two games behind Utah and Portland for the eighth and final playoff slot in the West.
The Jazz pulled away from the Rockets in the fourth quarter by shooting a red-hot 72.2 percent and scoring 37 points in the period. Williams, who finished with 17 points and 12 assists, put on a pick-and-roll clinic in the fourth quarter, collecting six points and eight assists in the final 12 minutes alone.
Since a certain 7-foot-6 All-Star center wasn't patrolling the paint, Utah had little trouble attacking the lane.
"Houston really needs Yao Ming because he is such a presence inside," Utah forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "We were able to drive to the basket and make some lay-ups without Yao because there was less resistance."
Yao was scratched from the lineup about an hour before the game. He participated in the team's pregame walk-through, but his illness only got worse after returning to the locker room. For now, he's listed as day-to-day.
Without the center, the Rockets were forced to do some lineup shuffling. Besides Scola being inserted into the starting five, Tracy McGrady made his first start since returning from a knee injury on Jan. 19.
Despite enduring a slow start by missing seven of his first eight shots, McGrady carried the Rockets in the second half by canning 11 of his team-high 21 points in the fourth quarter.
However, McGrady couldn't do enough to make up for Yao's missing body on the defensive end.
After Scola sank a pair of free throws to knot the game at 74-74 with just over six minutes left, Williams seized control of the game. He found Kirilenko for a dunk and beat the shot clock for another bucket that pushed the Jazz ahead.
Finally, Williams capped off what amounted to a 14-3 spurt by finding Kyle Korver for back-to-back three-pointers. That thrust the Jazz ahead 88-77 with under three minutes left.
The Rockets never recovered.
"There were some breakdowns," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "Utah is good. They run really good stuff and if you're not sharp in your execution -- especially late -- they usually score."
The Rockets didn't do themselves any favors at the foul line.
Houston made a mere 9-of-19 shots from the stripe, finishing 47.4 percent. Heading into Sunday's action, the Rockets were 22nd among 30 teams in free-throw shooting at 73.2 percent.
Scola was 6-of-12 from the stripe, while McGrady missed all three of his free-throw attempts.
"That's been our Achilles' heel all year," McGrady said. "Go up there and shoot with confidence. That's all I can give you. And I am one of them. This is the worst I've ever shot."
Still, that wasn't Houston's biggest issue.
On a night when their big man was missing, the Rockets couldn't keep the Jazz out of the lane.
Utah scored on their final 13 possessions -- taking advantage of Yao's absence.
"We had some lanes to drive for layups because Yao wasn't in there," Utah forward Carlos Boozer said.
