There are worse ways to win. The Rockets went with the fun way. It also, for a retooled roster, might be the only way.
It has worked so far, with the Rockets taking their third-consecutive win since the All-Star break with another offensive blitz, blowing out the New Jersey Nets, 123-108, Saturday as they again seemed capable of blasting through bursts of scoring whenever necessary.
“Yes, we can score the ball,” said Chase Budinger, who had 27 points in his first game replacing Shane Battier as the starting small forward. “It’s not going to be an issue. Defensively, we have to get better. The first half, we were letting them do anything they wanted. We were giving up layups, giving up open shots, letting them get to the free throw line way too much. I think that is going to be our emphasis in the next 20 games.”
The Rockets did get better defensively after a terrible start. They probably did not have to.
They shot well throughout the night, hitting 51.2 percent to move to 8-0 when making at least half their shots. The Rockets had a season-high 33 assists, moving to 4-1 when getting 30 assists, and rolled up a season-best 29 fast break points.
For just the second time this season, they had three scorers with at least 20 points, with Kevin Martin scoring 30 and Luis Scola adding 23 to Budinger’s 27.
“We started out shooting the ball really well,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “Chase shot it really well. Kevin shot it really well. We have the ability to score, this team. That’s who we are. We’re an offensive team. We’re going to have to do that and we’re going to have to continue to try to get better at the other end.”
The wins since the All-Star break have not been against much opposition. After knocking off the Pistons who were on the verge of revolt and the Cavaliers who hold the league’s worst record, the Rockets took their ninth-consecutive win against the Nets who have lost a league-high 10-consecutive games when playing the second half of a back-to-back.
Still, the Rockets led by 22 when they cleared the bench for the final minutes, with little having changed in their play from the games before the trade deadline to their first since the deals that shipped out Aaron Brooks and Battier.
“Early on (this season) we’d go into an offensive lull and weren’t getting stops at the same time,” Courtney Lee said. “Now we’re starting to flow a lot better. We’re able to score.
“It is about just getting stops. If we can stop them and continue to score, it’s key.”
The Rockets scored a season high 71 first-half points, but once again did not defend almost at all in the first half. In the first quarter, the teams barely seemed to notice one another trying to score. The Rockets hit 66.7 percent of their shots in the first quarter, scoring 37 points and still led by just four.
“It was like a scrimmage,” Adelman said. “We let the two big guys (Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez) catch the ball too close to the basket. We talked about (being) the first team that starts making some stops.”
Lopez and Humprhies made a combined 8 of 11 shots in the first quarter, but just 5 of 14 the rest of the way. Deron Williams, in his second half with the Nets, had a season-high and Toyota Center record 17 assists, but made just 3 of 12 shots. The Rockets offense, however, continued to roll until the benches were cleared.
“I’m not surprised at all offensively,” Martin said. “We have guys that can fill it up. I wasn’t surprised offensively and I also wasn’t surprised defensively.”
الرئيسية 
موضوع: Retooled Rockets rout Nets Squad notches third straight win since All-Star break 
السبت فبراير 26, 2011 10:44 pm
