NBA Playoffs 2008: Rockets Meet Jazz Again, aim to overcome checkered playoff past
NBA Playoffs 2008: Rockets Meet Jazz Again, aim to overcome checkered playoff past
NBA PLAYOFFS: ROCKETS VS. JAZZ - History in the re-making
It’s been 10 long years since the Rockets have gotten past the first round of the playoffs. What does that mean to this group of players? It’s time for a change
Rockets coach Rick Adelman is familiar with Jazz coach Jerry Sloan from their NBA playing days.
The reminders are more subtle but are as inescapable as the Rockets’ championship past marked by long banners hanging from the arena rafters and practice court walls.
Ten seasons have ended without the Rockets moving beyond the playoffs’ first round, a long, desolate playoff drought begun the season the Jazz eliminated them in the Western Conference finals on John Stockton’s last-second, Game 6 3-pointer and through the Jazz’s five-minute, Game 7 surge last season.
With the Rockets to face the Jazz again, beginning tonight in at Toyota Center, players who have little to nothing to do with that history know it. They hear about it. They feel it.
Tonight, Rick Adelman will order them to ignore it.
With the Kings, he took over a team that had never won a playoff series (in the Sacramento era). With the Rockets, Houston, he has joined a franchise tormented by its recent past. Both, he said, needed to hear the same message.
“I will tell them, ‘I don’t care what’s happened before,’ ” Adelman said. “We’re a totally different team than we were at the beginning of the year, never mind what you were last year. But we’ve shown we can win. And that’s the bottom line.”
In a season scarred by losing Yao Ming for the final 37 games and in which Tracy McGrady was out for 16, the Rockets tied for the third-best record in franchise history. Their 22-game winning streak was the NBA’s longest in 37 years and the second longest in league history.
Yet, there is a sense that every accomplishment, every success will be weighed against the search for a way out of the first round, particularly after last season, when they were as close as they had been since the 1998 series against the Jazz.
“When you lose a Game 7 on your home court, that sticks with you,” McGrady said. “It’s tough. It’s heartbreaking. … It took a while for me to get over it. I’m thankful that I have another opportunity to make it (advancing in the playoffs) happen again.”
Yet the Rockets insisted they are less burdened by their recent history than a year ago.
Having overcome so much this season, they have been noticeably loose in the days leading to tonight’s playoff opener, particularly when compared to last season, when they believed they would finally get the first series win for most of that team’s roster (only three of the 15 Rockets players have won a playoff series).
“This year is different because no one expected us to be in the playoffs,” Shane Battier said. “I don’t think the burden is on us at all. Every media outlet has picked us to go out in the first round. We’ll play free.
“I don’t think we’re a team that plays better when we’re tense. We’re playing to hold on to something. We were better this year when we were playing loose and felt that everyone was against us. We’re going to go through shootaround and Deke (Dikembe Mutombo) is going to tell the same awful jokes he tells every day and we’re going to make fun of each other and when the game starts, we’ll be serious and ready to go.”
MORE STORIES
IN Chronicle
29-year-old Magnolia soldier dies in Iraq
Rodriguez leaves Astros start with groin injury
Blake, Spaniard will meet in Clay Court final
30 minutes, 2 drunk drivers, 2 cops in hospital
Cleric threatens new Iraq uprising unless crackdown ends
State unsure how long sect genetic testing will take
Clinton, Obama pull out stops in Pennsylvania
SEARCH RESULTS
Rockets boss Alexander remains upbeat
Missed today’s chat? Here’s the transcript
Missed the chat? Here’s the transcript
Wells works out, may be used against Dallas
See what you missed in the Rockets chat
Has Dikembe Mutombo been hanging out with Roger Clemens?
Behind Yao, there are problems. And Dyna-goals.
Landry, Rockets at odds over contract offer
ROCKETS NOTES: Mutombo says incident with fan over and done
ROCKETS NOTES: Updates on Alexander, Lucas, Francis
That is the goal that has not changed, even if the mood and expectations have.
“The city wants a winner,” Battier said. “Mr. (Leslie) Alexander wants a winner. Tad Brown (Rockets CEO) wants a winner. The people in ticket sales want a winner. I think they are proud of our accomplishments, but everyone wants to keep winning.”
ROCKETS: SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Justice & McClain: Rockets are big underdogs
Rockets rehearse for Jazz
Justice: Rockets face biggest bullies
Shots from the finale at Toyota Center
T-Mac’s Rockets playoff career
Adelman on seeding
Adelman on his guards
Adelman on Alston out of lineup
Adelman on benefits of homecourt
Honoring Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon
Mutombo’s career on and off the court
Proving doubters wrong
More than relieved of last season’s expectations, the Rockets have often flourished when doubted.
“It’s no secret,” McGrady said. “What (did) people say when Yao went out? ‘We’re done. We won’t make the playoffs. We’re done.’ They said it. We surprised … everybody. We came together as a unit, and we played our butts off. We got to come out fighting. Since it was said from day one, they said we weren’t going to make it, we took that as motivation.”
It is not a manufactured motivation. The Jazz have been widely favored this series, enough for the Rockets to feel the same sentiments that incited the 22-game winning streak, including the 10 wins after Yao was declared out.
“People picked against us from day one,” Battier said. “We started out 15-17. People called us the most disappointing team. At the halfway point, the most underachieving team in the NBA. When Yao Ming got hurt, we were supposed to crumble and fall and give up the season. Lo and behold, here we are. We learned a long time ago, it doesn’t mean squat what people say.”
Jobs not in jeopardy
In another change since last season’s meeting with the Jazz, the organization will not treat the postseason as a referendum on the regular season or its plans. Jeff Van Gundy was fired after last season’s first-round loss. But this season, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said he cannot view the postseason results as the definitive measure of the team.
“That’s been my core question,” he said. “We’re going to make what we hope is a great run. At the end of that run, because we didn’t have Yao, it’s going to be hard for us to evaluate how good we are in terms of how focused we need to be on making changes. How aggressive you are in making changes will depend on how good you are and how close you think you are when you have Yao back next year with the core we have.
“It would be very beneficial. It would obviously give our young players time in the playoffs, and I don’t think it is something that affects the psychology of things in terms of us not getting out of the first round in a while. It would certainly end the stories written about it, which I think would have some indirect benefit.
“The burdensome (aspect) is that the team has won championships. How do we get back there? I think we’re more focused on that than (not) getting out of the first round being burdensome. The veteran guys just want to win.There are a lot of reminders, along with the banners up there to remind you that you want to get back to winning a title.”
Adelman has been there. In his first two seasons in Sacramento, the Kings went out in the first round.
“We were the eighth seed in both series,” Adelman said. “I found it interesting we’re the eighth seed and people there thought there was something wrong. I was perfectly happy with our group because they took those teams (the Jazz and Lakers) to five games and had a chance to win. I thought we were growing as a team. But I knew as we went on that was the whole talk, that we had to win.
“To me, we changed the group over the three years. We still had the core group of five guys that lost. Kind of like this team, we jumped to 55 wins all of a sudden. We lost the first game of the first round (to Phoenix). Everybody started talking about us not getting out of the first round again, and we won the next three going away. That team responded.
“I think you gain experience as you go. It’s a fine line for me to push these guys in the right direction. I know what everybody talks about here. To me, it has nothing to do with us, except for the fact you’d like to break it.”
‘City wants a winner’
That is the goal that has not changed, even if the mood and expectations have.
“The city wants a winner,” Battier said. “Mr. (Leslie) Alexander wants a winner. Tad Brown (Rockets CEO) wants a winner. The people in ticket sales want a winner. I think they are proud of our accomplishments, but everyone wants to keep winning.”
NBA Playoffs 2008: Rockets Meet Jazz Again, aim to overcome checkered playoff past. Editing by Tom Edwards
Iflove Popular
Thank you for visting iflove.com, the fairy legend of Edward Chen the Movie Star! You may want to Find Love or subscribe to RSS feed. Enjoy or do a search!
I was on Yahoo and found your blog. Read a few of your other posts. Good work. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
Tom Stanley
[...] Iflove Sports Events wrote an interesting post today on NBA Playoffs 2008: Rockets Meet Jazz Again, aim to overcome …Here’s a quick excerptThe people in ticket sales want a winner. I think they are proud of our accomplishments, but everyone wants to keep winning.” NBA Playoffs 2008: Rockets Meet Jazz Again, aim to overcome checkered playoff past. Editing by Tom Edwards … [...]