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Game Time: Rockets 93, Mavericks 86
In the past week, the Rockets' backcourt has been decimated by another season-ending injury to Tracy McGrady, and the rather abrupt exiling of Rafer Alston.
The newest alignment of the perpetually new-look Rockets has Aaron Brooks at the point and Ron Artest moving into the starting lineup as the shooting guard. And NBA watchers are left to wonder if this version of the team will be the one to finally get its game together.
Let's take a closer look at both the principal players and the marginal ones.
Aaron Brooks
Going north and south, nobody in the league is any quicker with the ball than Brooks. There's no side-to-side swerve in his crossover, and he seems to speed up as he gets closer to the rim.
Since all of the other starters — Yao Ming, Artest, Shane Battier, and Luis Scola — can't run with Brooks, Houston's fast breaks and early offense have a peculiar look: Brooks zipping into the paint, with Artest and Battier trailing and looking to spot up beyond the arc. Then Scola chugging his way to his favorite spot at the foul line. And Yao lumbering into the paint.
Trouble is that while Brooks is a knock-down perimeter shooter — he hit a pair of critical treys in the endgame — he's not an effective finisher in a crowd. Indeed, he missed three layups — all of them forced — when he couldn't create sufficient air-space amongst the trees.
But Brooks sure can shoot — whether from a standstill, or on an instantaneous stop-and-pop maneuver. For the game he was 7-15, including 3-5 from out there, for 19 points.
Even so, the youngster is still learning how to run an offense. Because he tends to rely too much on his superior quickness, Brooks winds up dribbling into trouble, and making ad-lib passes that misconnect. In addition, his feet are often quicker than his hands — two of his four turnovers came when he dribbled the ball off his own foot.
Not that the second-year player can't pass. His eight assists came on nifty drive-and-kicks and one drive-and-dump to Yao.
But it's defense that's his biggest worry. His quick hands enabled him to beat his man to a pair of entry passes — hence his two steals — but Brooks was discombobulated by high screen/rolls. Even worse, he was routinely beaten off the dribble by J.J. Barea. Aside from Brooks' steals, his best defensive efforts occurred when he successfully tailgated Jason Kidd through multiple screens on multiple occasions.
Brooks definitely has the tools to be an All-Star caliber performer. All he needs to do is recognize when having a light foot on the gas pedal is beneficial. It says here that by the All-Star break in 2010, Brooks will be a better point guard than Alston ever was.
Ron Artest will shoulder more of the scoring load without Tracy McGrady. (Bill Baptist / Getty Images)
Ron Artest
As usual, Ron-Ron overhandled the ball on several sequences, forced a variety of shots — 6-16 for 17 points — and frequently jammed up whatever offensive flow the Rockets had struggled to establish. But he's a powerhouse in the low post, a dangerous scorer in wing isolations, and although his shoot-on-the-way-up jumper can be streaky it's also surprisingly soft on the rim.
Most importantly, with T-Mac down and out, Artest is the only wingman who can create his own shots. What remains to be seen, however, is if Artest can match T-Mac's perimeter accuracy so as to discourage opponents from collapsing around Yao in the pivot.
It appears that Artest has lost a half-step on defense. For most of the game, both Antoine Wright and Josh Howard ran him ragged, beat him to the turn on S/Rs, and easily created open jumpers. Artest was much more effective — and much more physical — in defense of Dirk Nowizki.
Yao Ming
Watching how Yao is so slow off his feet and so slow with the ball, it's hard to believe that his leg miseries have fully healed. For sure he has a variety of moves in the pivot, but he mainly relied on his jump hook. Yao executed nary a spin move, air-balled an open 15-footer from the right baseline, and suffered the indignity of having Ryan Hollins block one of his low-release turnaround jumpers.
Yao did fill up the stat sheet — 8-16, 13 rebounds, 2 blocks, 22 points. But double-teams — especially those that eventuated after he'd put the ball on the floor — sent Yao into mild panics and resulted in a flurry of misdribbles and faulty passes. In all he registered six turnovers and zero assists.
Whenever the Mavs needed a score, they ran S/Rs that involved whomever Yao happened to be guarding. They ran 11 of these and got an open shot every single time (making seven), simply because Yao was both reluctant and incapable of establishing any kind of defensive presence beyond the shadow of the basket.
Still, with T-Mac out of action, Yao becomes the Rockets' primary target on offense. Which is why he had such a huge number of touches (32) when Houston had possession.
But the increased involvement will necessarily lead to increased body contact. And with various injuries having already caused Yao to miss more than a season's worth of games (86 to be exact) over the past three seasons, the question of his health looms as a larger issue than ever before.
Luis Scola hit his mid-range jumpers, scored a couple of earnest buckets in the low-post, and — more than Artest — was mainly responsible for banging Nowitzki around and limiting the Mavs' leading scorer to 4-18 and only nine total points.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the hard-working Scola is one of the most underrated players in the league.
Shane Battier also worked hard on defense, but was strung out when Yao offered no help on high S/Rs.
Von Wafer forced too many shots — 1-7 — and tried to pack 48 minutes of activity into his 16 minutes of daylight.
Having the benefit of only one walk-through since his arrival in Houston, Kyle Lowry drove to the hole with quickness and strength, played defense with admirable ferocity and terrific range, and avoided hoisting up his flawed jumpers. His four turnovers — as opposed to his two assists — were understandable given his unfamiliarity with his new teammates, with the Rockets' system, and also his desire to make an immediate positive impression. It won't take long before Lowry develops into a valuable backup to Brooks.
So, exactly where is this version of the Rockets?
A curious mixture of youth and experience, of speed and sluggishness, of vigor and fragility.
For the Rockets to finally experience lift-off several possibilities must come to pass:
Brooks' learning curve has to be short and steep.
Artest has to shoot well and be a mite more unselfish.
Yao has to keep his limbs intact.
Wafer has to light up the scoreboard on a consistent basis.
In all, there are simply too many things that can go wrong for the Rockets to blast their way into the finals. As ever, this team is still a year away from being a legitimate championship contender.
Are they? I don't think so.
