HOUSTON 86, INDIANA 76
Rockets Take Over In Fourth Quarter
At Houston | March 20, 2007
Defense gave the Pacers an opportunity to beat Houston. Offense kept it from happening.
Though Indiana held the Rockets without a field goal for 6½ minutes spanning the third and fourth quarters, the Pacers couldn't put together enough offense for a much-needed run. When Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming snapped Houston out of its funk, the home team responded with a 14-3 burst that led to an 86-76 victory for the Rockets Tuesday in Toyota Center.
Both teams got good games from their star players but little else. The Pacers got 25 points from Jermaine O'Neal and 22 from Jamaal Tinsley, while the Rockets got 32 from Yao and a near triple-double from McGrady (20 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds), but no other player for either team scored more than seven.
Indiana (30-36) lost its eighth straight on the road and 12th in 13 games overall to slip into ninth in the Eastern Conference. Houston (43-25) won its fourth in a row and seventh in eight games.
PLUSES
O'Neal and Tinsley both were effective throughout, though O'Neal needed 24 shots (making nine) to score his 25 points. He added nine rebounds. Tinsley was 11-of-19 from the field and had six assists and two steals but committed five turnovers. The Pacers held the Rockets to 39.2 percent shooting and forced 17 turnovers but struggled to capitalize, managing just two fast-break points.
MINUSES
For most of the night, the strategy of guarding Yao straight-up with either O'Neal or Foster worked because it denied Houston the open 3-pointers that had fueled an offense averaging 107.9 points in the previous seven games. But Yao broke loose in the fourth quarter and finished 10-of-17 from the field and 12-of-13 from the free-throw line, adding 14 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, though he committed six turnovers. McGrady had a poor shooting night (7-of-21) but did everything else well. The Rockets controlled the boards 53-41 and had 23 assists.
MOMENTS
Neither team could put much in the way of distance on the other for most of the game as the Rockets led by two at the end of each of the first three quarters (18-16, 39-37 and 61-59).
Indiana's big opportunity came after the Rockets took a 61-58 lead late in the third on a McGrady drive. The home team wouldn't make a basket until 7:33 remained in the fourth quarter, missing 11 shots in a row, but the Pacers also went cold, missing their final seven shots of the third period and making just four in the early minutes of the fourth. As a result, the game was tied 67-all when McGrady broke the drought with a 3-pointer.
Yao then scored twice inside and the Rocket were well on their way to the decisive run as the Pacers got no closer than seven in the final three minutes.
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