Rockets brush off futility against Spurs: Houston gets first victory in San Antonio since 1997

Web Posted: 12/23/2006 12:24 AM CST
Johnny Ludden
Express-News

The chant started in Section 219, near the rafters, and drifted down to the court.

M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!

The Spurs heard the refrain countless times at the AT&T Center. Just never for an opposing player.

After finding San Antonio to be slightly less than hospitable for much of the past decade, the Houston Rockets felt right at home Friday. They brought their own fans, turned Yao Ming and Bonzi Wells loose and hammered the Spurs 97-78.

In addition to handing the Spurs their worst loss of the season, Houston ended its 17-game losing streak in San Antonio. The Rockets' last victory here came on April 20, 1997, which, not so coincidentally, was the last loss the Spurs suffered to Houston before drafting Tim Duncan.

Duncan wasn't much help Friday, missing 9 of 13 shots, 5 of 11 free throws and scoring a modest 14 points. But neither were most of his teammates. The Spurs shot 40.3 percent, gave up 22 points off 17 turnovers and were bullied for much of the first half by Yao and Wells.

"It was a frustrating night," said Manu Ginobili, who led the Spurs with 23 points. "Offensively, we couldn't get anything done and defensively it was basically the same."

The Spurs didn't have to contend with Tracy McGrady, who spent the day in Waco visiting a back specialist. But it didn't matter. Not with Yao dominating inside.

While Houston had lost four of its first five games without McGrady, Yao used the time to further establish himself as the league's most dominating center. He entered Friday having scored at least 30 points in all but one of the last six games.

Judging from his first few minutes against the Spurs, Yao looked determined to eclipse that total in the first half. He scored 10 of the Rockets' first 12 points and totaled 14 in the opening quarter, 20 in the half.

"He's getting a lot more aggressive," Robert Horry said. "What helped him most was McGrady being injured.

"Most of those guys are going to defer to (McGrady), so (Yao) started to be more aggressive. That was probably the best thing for him, to help his maturity, his game. He's just a totally different player."

The Spurs tried fronting Yao, playing behind him, double-teaming him, but didn't have much success. Francisco Elson received the initial assignment to guard Yao, but he didn't last long. Neither did Fabricio Oberto, who picked up three fouls in two minutes.

Yao finished with 22 points and seven rebounds after the Spurs finally slowed him in the second half by getting him in foul trouble.

Houston took a 17-point halftime lead and the Spurs never got closer than 12.

"We were definitely flat, no energy," Tony Parker said. "They just came out very strong and were more physical. We had a hard time with Yao Ming.

"He basically hurt us in the first quarter and after that we never came back."

Wells, meanwhile, nearly tormented the Spurs as much as Yao, which shouldn't have come as a surprise considering he did the same thing in last season's first-round playoff series with Sacramento. The Spurs frequently had to double-team Wells (15 points, seven rebounds) because he was too strong for any one of their perimeter defenders to guard: Bruce Bowen played just six minutes in the second half.

"He causes so many different problems," Horry said. "He can play outside, he go on the block and do that post-up thing. It causes us to change our defense from our normal routine."

The Spurs rallied from a 19-point deficit in the second half to win in Houston on Nov. 14, but the Rockets made sure there wouldn't be another impressive comeback. Even when Yao went to the bench midway through the third quarter with his fourth foul, Houston outscored the Spurs 10-9.

The Rockets shot 51.4 percent for the game and their defense also flustered the Spurs, who committed nine turnovers and matched their fewest points in any half this season with 36.

"They played and executed for the entire 48 minutes," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We competed for 24 minutes. It's tough to win if you play half the time."

A vocal contingent of Houston supporters filled most of one upper-deck section and serenaded Yao whenever he went to the foul line.

M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!

"If you don't count preseason games, that's the first time I've won here," Yao said. "That's a big night for me."

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Mike Finger: Yao offers thorn for Spurs' side

Web Posted: 12/23/2006 12:27 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

This was Yao Ming's first victory in San Antonio, but it won't be his last. There will be more nights when Fabricio Oberto won't have enough fouls and Francisco Elson won't have enough wingspan, and Yao will treat them and their teammates like a bunch of double-teaming, silver-and-black Lilliputians.

It doesn't mean that the Spurs are slipping, or that they aren't still the team to beat in the star-stacked West. But among the many reasons why they should be concerned about how difficult it will be to make another championship run next spring, few should induce more tossing, more turning or more cold sweats than the following four words:

Houston Rockets, seventh seed.

The Rockets didn't look anything like a lower-rung playoff team in their 97-78 whipping of the Spurs at the AT&T Center on Friday, but they might be one anyway. They entered the night as the No.7 team in the West, and in a conference that has now added Allen Iverson to its stable, Houston could very well end up in a position to play the Spurs in the first round of the postseason.

If it plays out that way, the Spurs may have to beat Yao, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki in back-to-back-to-back seven-game series. In the history of the NBA, has any team ever overcome three more dominant forces just to get to the Finals?

Friday proved that just getting past the first step will be daunting enough by itself. Over and over again, the Spurs discovered that they — like every other team in the league — have no answer for Yao at either end of the floor.

By the time the game was four minutes old, Yao already had 10 points, and he didn't have to work particularly hard for any of them. He blocked Tim Duncan's first shot attempt, forced him to shoot an airball on his second, then altered a Manu Ginobili drive a couple of possessions later.

Yao, who entered the game averaging almost 34 points in six games, finished with just 22, but only because he sat for most of the second half.

Afterward, he said his first career victory at the AT&T Center — and Duncan's first career loss to the Rockets in San Antonio — was "a big night for me." Yao also acknowledged it might end up having positive implications for the rest of his team as well.

"We may end up playing (the Spurs) in the playoffs," Yao said. "With their record, they'll probably get home-court advantage. So winning on the road is very important."

One of Yao's new teammates, Shane Battier, knows both sides of that argument. When Battier was with Memphis, the Grizzlies had a couple of their own impressive regular-season victories in San Antonio, and after those games, they too talked about making a statement.

But when the Spurs later faced Memphis in the first round of the 2004 playoffs? The Grizzlies were swept in four games.

Still, there are reasons to believe the Rockets won't go so quietly if they end up here in April or May. Yao is the biggest, both literally and figuratively, but Tracy McGrady and Bonzi Wells aren't far behind. Both are accomplished Spurs-killers — McGrady as a comeback artist and Wells as a postseason menace — and both would help provide Yao with room to operate.

Of course, the Rockets need McGrady — who didn't play Friday because of back spasms — to get healthy. And they need to make sure Yao doesn't endure another season-crippling injury of his own.

If everything works out, they might still be a seventh seed. But they'll be a seventh seed no one will have any interest in playing.

But Battier, perhaps reminded of his experiences in Memphis, wasn't ready to make that jump Friday night. He said the rout was a confidence-builder, to be sure, but not an indicator that the West's power structure was changing.

"We needed this game more than the Spurs did," Battier said. "Just to prove to ourselves that when we do the things we're capable of doing, we can compete with the Spurs. They're the best team in the NBA, no question about that."

For the Spurs, that should be a comforting thought. But after what they saw from a seventh seed?

Let the cold sweats begin.

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Rockets' win over Spurs fueled by 'Bonzi-ish' play

Web Posted: 12/23/2006 12:42 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News

Nobody inside the AT&T Center on Friday should have been surprised to see Houston's Bonzi Wells scoring 15 points or grabbing seven rebounds in the Rockets' 97-78 victory over the Spurs. The last time he played in the arena, he had 38 points and 12 rebounds for the Sacramento Kings in Game 5 of a 2006 first-round playoff series.

The Spurs survived Wells' performance that time, but not on Friday. With Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy running his offense through Wells after 7-foot-6 center Yao Ming got in foul trouble, the Rockets thumped the Spurs.

"Bonzi looked very Bonzi-ish," Spurs guard Brent Barry said. "Maybe there's something about this building that wakes him up."

Wells has needed a wake-up call. On the inactive list through the season's first 18 games because of injuries and personal issues, Wells came into Friday's game averaging only 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in seven games with the Rockets. But Friday, he looked much like the player the Spurs feared most by the conclusion of their 4-2 playoff series victory over the Kings.

"Every time he plays against us," said Spurs point guard Tony Parker, "it seems like he has a good game."

The Rockets went into Friday's game winless in their last 17 games in San Antonio.

"I didn't know that," Wells said of his new team's struggles in the Alamo City. "But I know had some wins here before, so I felt confident we were going to win. I told the guys before the game we were going to win."

Wells doesn't have the same loquacious personality he had through the Spurs-Kings series, which he clearly believed enhanced his value on the free-agent market. He won't talk about the error in judgment that moved him to turn down a five-year, $38 million offer from the Kings. He is playing for the Rockets for just $2.2 million this season.

The Rockets are happy to have him, too. With high-scoring Tracy McGrady battling a bad back again, Wells is an able replacement. Always confident, he said there is nothing special about scoring against the Spurs.

"I don't care who I'm playing against," he said. "I understand my game and I understand what I can do, and I just try to do it."

Barry said the Rockets will be a scary playoff foe for any team as long as Wells remains "Bonzi-ish."

"Obviously he's a pivotal player for them with Tracy (McGrady) out," Barry said. "If Tracy gets himself healthy, Bonzi's the type of player who can make all the difference between winning a playoff series and losing it."

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