PrintMavs Race Past Shell-shocked Rockets 130-99
Red-hot Dallas sends Houston to biggest lost of the season
Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer
Houston - Sometimes numbers don’t tell the entire story. Wednesday night, however, they revealed everything.
Scorching the Toyota Center nets to the tune of 65.5% shooting from the field, the sizzling Dallas Mavericks parlayed their hot hands with Houston’s worst defensive effort of the year, sending the Rockets to a thoroughly disappointing 130-99 defeat.
Consider the gory details: After the Rockets raced out to a 25-13 lead to start the game, Dallas responded with a jaw-dropping 26-0 run which effectively served as a TKO of sorts, since it staggered Houston to such an extent that the Rockets never did recover.
From there, the Mavericks set Houston’s opponent season highs for total points (130), points in a quarter (39 in fourth quarter), points in a half (68 in first half), field goal percentage for a game, field goal percentage for a quarter (70% in second quarter) and field goal percentage in a half (69% in the first half).
“There wasn’t any defense,” lamented Rockets’ Head Coach Rick Adelman. “It’s kind of (indicative of) the way we practiced yesterday and it came out today and they made every shot. We were so non-aggressive.
“I guess sometimes you need to get hit in the jaw to wake yourself up and I hope that’s what happens because we can’t play that way. We just didn’t have any energy at all and it’s almost like, at the end of the first quarter, we just stopped. Once they went on their run, it was like we didn’t know what to do. You have to take each possession, you have to get stops and you have to keep playing together. It’s a long game and it’s almost like they took the wind right out of us at the end of the first quarter.”
Leading the way for Dallas were Tim Thomas (season-high 25 points) and renowned Rockets-killer Jason Terry (27 points). Dirk Nowitzki chipped in with a ho-hum 25 as well but it was the aforementioned duo which stood at the center of the Mavericks’ monolithic run. The pair combined to hit 19 of their 24 shots, including 8 of 12 from three-point range.
Dallas’ offensive extravaganza placed the white-hot spotlight on Houston’s slippage so far this season on the defensive end. The Rockets currently rank in the middle of the pack league-wide in defensive efficiency and they know improvements must be made if they hope to return to the form that helped them stand among the NBA’s defensive elite the last several years.
“We’re still trying to figure out our defensive identity,” admitted Shane Battier. “We have a lot of new faces and we’re trying to figure out what works for us on the defensive end. We don’t have a rim protector so the old defense that we had when Yao was here is now a little bit different. You have to play pick-and-roll a little bit differently, your spacing has to be different and your rotations have to be different.
“We can do it, we’ve shown we can do it. But there has to be concentration and a concerted effort every night. And on most nights when we’ve played poorly we haven’t had that concentration. I think we’ll shore it up. We have to extend our periods of good basketball and shorten our periods of bad basketball, and that just comes with time. Unfortunately, you’re going to catch a few lumps and tonight was a big lump.”
QUOTES
RICK ADELMAN
Just very disappointed. From five minutes of the first quarter on, we came to a halt and they just took over. It was mostly the defensive end obviously. There wasn’t any defense. You can’t really talk about it. But it’s kind of the way we practiced yesterday and it came out today and they made every shot. We were so non aggressive.
I guess sometimes you need to get hit in the jaw to wake yourself up and I hope that’s what happens because we can’t play that way. There’s just no way we can succeed so we’ll just have to go back and work at it.
We just didn’t have any energy at all and it’s almost like, at the end of the first quarter, we just stopped. We gave in to the situation. We have to keep competing. Once they went on their run, it was like we didn’t know what to do. You have to take each possession, you have to get stops and you have to keep playing together. It’s a long game and it’s almost like they took the wind right out of us at the end of the first quarter.
AARON BROOKS
Hats off to them, they played great. Defensively, we played terrible. They hit all their shots. We didn’t play good on defense at all. We scored enough to win the game but defensively we didn’t do it.
We came out with a lot of energy. We played hard. It’s not just energy, it’s execution. We didn’t do a good job executing coach’s game plan. We blew a bunch of assignments and they made us pay for it. Every time we made a mistake, they hit a shot. We allowed that to get to us and they continued to hurt us. It’s a tough loss but we’ve got San Antonio (Friday night) and we have to rebound.
SHANE BATTIER
It’s very disappointing. Dallas is a good team and they came in here and did what good teams do. They punish the teams that aren’t ready to play and don’t play as a cohesive unit. They kept doing it the whole night.
(on the defense): We’re still trying to figure out our defensive identity. We have a lot of new faces and we’re trying to figure out what works for us on the defensive end. We don’t have a rim protector so the old defense that we had when Yao was here is now a little bit different. You have to play pick-and-roll a little bit differently, your spacing has to be different, your rotations have to be different. We can do it, we’ve shown we can do it. But there has to be concentration and a concerted effort every night. And on most nights when we’ve played poorly we haven’t had that concentration.
I think we’ll shore it up. We have to extend our periods of good basketball and shorten our periods of bad basketball, and that just comes with time. Unfortunately, you’re going to catch a few lumps and tonight was a big lump.
(breakdowns mental?): Mental and physical. We had breakdowns all over the court. I don’t care of you don’t have the best scheme in the world. I don’t care if you have physical limitations. If you play with passion and you play with emotion and you hustle your tail off, you can make up for a lot of that. That’s what we have to do to survive. We are physically limited. When we don’t have that, it really shows and instead of coming together as a group we tend to do it individually and that’s the wrong direction for this team.
(passion missing tonight?): Passion’s not the right word. Sometimes you get a demoralizing energy, especially with young teams, and you become unsure of yourself, so you don’t play aggressively. When you don’t play with aggressiveness, teams like Dallas really punish you.
LUIS SCOLA
(On what went wrong) “We should be able to hang in there when they make their ( Dallas) run. We can't play this way, definitely. This is not the way to play if we want to win. We are not going to beat anybody playing like this.”
(On Dallas) “We let them score anyway that they wanted to. They played completely free and exactly the way they wanted to play. Everything that they wanted to do, they did.”
COACH RICK CARLISLE
(on the game) “ Houston scored on their first nine possessions of the game. Our start was horrendous. The rest of the game was great. We battled back and were very active defensively.”
(on the team’s play after last night’s loss) “Nights like last night are tough. And tonight is what makes this league fantastic. Our guys bounced back well. Our tempo was perfect. Last night we played a very unintelligent game. We were much more aggressive tonight. Consistency with our effort and overall team play will be key for this team.”
(on Tim Thomas’ play) “Tim played great. He took some hard fouls and he was the only one that took a hard foul last night. He brings a playoff mentality to our team. He has worked hard and has been impressive. He came here for a chance to win a championship and he took a substantial pay cut for this opportunity. I’m proud of him and the way he plays.”
JASON KIDD
(on moving into number two all time for assists) “The big thing was we knew it was going to happen. The stats will take care of themselves and after my career is over, I will reflect on them. Some records are meant to stay where they are and the all-time assist number of John Stockton is going to stay there for a long time. When you are talking about the all-time great guards you can’t omit John Stockton. He has to be up at the top of the list.”
DIRK NOWITZKI
(on the game) “Defensively, we couldn’t get a stop to start the game and they came out hot. Our bench was great and we stepped out on defense and that turned the game for us. Once we get into transition, we are really good.”
(on the Mavericks bench) “We really relied on our bench. Tim (Thomas) was great for us. Jet (Jason Terry) was on fire and was looking like the Jet of old.”
TIM THOMAS
(on the game and his play) “We had to get ourselves going after the way the game started. We have guys on the bench that have been around and know how to play the game. I have a high confidence level and I’m trying to get a feel for everything. It’s training camp for me. It’s been thirteen years in the league but I still know how to play basketball. I’m getting older. It’s always a key to put myself in a position for a chance to win a championship. That’s why I came here.”
NOTES
Tonight’s attendance of 18,157 marked the third sellout for the Rockets this season.
Houston’s 130-99 (-31) loss tonight marked its largest margin of defeat since a 109-75 (-34) decision at Phoenix (2/16/06). The 130 points by the Mavericks were the most against the Rockets since this same Dallas franchise registered a 156-147 (2OT) win at Houston on April 11, 1995.
Tonight’s 130-99 final was the first time the Rockets have been held under 100 points at home this season.
The Rockets have now alternated wins and losses for 12 consecutive games, which sets the longest such streak within a single season in team history (12 from 11/2/09-11/25/09, 11 from 12/13/75-1/3/76 and 11 from 12/20/01-1/15/02). The last NBA team to alternate wins and losses over a stretch of 12 games was the Miami Heat last season (12 from 2/7/09-3/4/09).
Houston opened up leads of 15-2 (+13) and 17-4 (+13) to start the game tonight, but saw Dallas score the final 23 points of the first quarter and the first three points of the second quarter in making a 26-0 run. The Mavericks also overcame a 17-point, second-quarter deficit in a 121-103 victory over the Rockets in the first meeting this season at Dallas (11/10/09). In addition, the Mavericks came back from a 14-point, third-quarter deficit for a 95-84 win over Houston last season at Dallas (4/15/09).
The Mavericks set Houston’s opponent season highs for total points (130), assists (33), points in a quarter (39 in fourth quarter), points in a half (68 in first half), field goal percentage for a game (.655, 55-84 FG), field goal percentage for a quarter (.700, 14-20 FG in second quarter) and field goal percentage in a half (.690, 29-42 FG in first half). Dallas also held all the previous marks, which it set in a 121-103 win in the first meeting this season (27 assists, 38 fourth-quarter points, 64 second-half points, .654 FG% in fourth quarter and .628 FG% in second half on 11/10/09 at Dallas).
Dallas’ field goal percentage of .655 (55-84 FG) was the third-highest ever by an opponent in a game against the Rockets, just surpassing a .654 (51-78 FG) performance by the Kings at Sacramento (3/20/01).
Carl Landry had 24 points (9-11 FG, 6-6 FT) and six rebounds tonight. He also scored 20 points (6-8 FG, 8-8 FT) in the last game vs. Sacramento (11/21/09), which marked the second time in his career (both this season) to post consecutive 20-point games.
Trevor Ariza finished with 20 points (8-15 FG) and two steals, marking his fifth 20-point game of the season. Ariza entered 2009-10 with just four 20-point performances over his first five seasons in the NBA.
Jason Kidd had nine points (4-7 FG) and seven assists. With his fifth assist tonight, Kidd (10,337) surpassed Mark Jackson (10,334) into second all-time among the NBA’s career assist leaders. Kidd now trails only John Stockton (15,806) in league history.
Jason Terry posted a team-high 27 points (10-11 FG, 4-4 3FG, 3-3 FT) and 10 assists tonight. Terry, who had a 31-point (13-21 FG) night off the bench last year at Houston (11/19/08), led the Mavericks again with 24 points off the pine (7-8 FG, 9-9 FT) in the first meeting this season at Dallas (11/10/09).
Dirk Nowitzki had 25 points (10-16 FG, 5-6 FT) and eight rebounds tonight. Nowitzki also went a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe en route to 23 points in the previous outing at Dallas (11/10/09).
Tim Thomas notched a season-high 23 points (9-13 FG, 4-8 3FG) and three steals tonight. His previous best was 11 points vs. Sacramento (11/20/09).
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