Big Easy Heartbreak

Crunch Time Miscues Cost Rockets in 99-95 Loss to New Orleans

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Houston - These are the games that spark insomnia, prematurely turn your hair gray and leave you muttering what-if scenarios deep into the night.

In control throughout and seemingly on their way to certain victory, the Rockets let one slip through their grasp Saturday night, stumbling down the stretch on their way to a bitterly disappointing 99-95 defeat at the hands of the Hornets.

Leading 93-86 with just under three minutes remaining, Houston appeared poised to claim their third straight victory and move a season-best 8 games over .500. Instead, the Rockets’ offense, so solid through most of the evening despite playing at a much slower pace than the team typically prefers, fell apart while falling victim to turnovers, missed shots and stagnation.

Sensing an opening that seemed closed to them just moments before, New Orleans pounced as Chris Paul weaved his magic, helping the Hornets outscore Houston 13-2 the rest of the way while leaving the Rockets to deal with the demons which accompany such missed opportunities.

“I didn’t think we were playing especially well for the first two and a half quarters," admitted Hornets Head Coach Jeff Bower. "But we showed a resiliency and a mental toughness to continue competing until things did turn our way.” 

Houston appeared to be in good hands heading down the stretch with Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry taking over as they’d done so many times this season. The Rockets’ dynamic fourth quarter duo had just combined to score 7 straight points late in the period to give their club a 93-86 lead with just 2:57 remaining. When New Orleans’ Devin Brown then got called for traveling on the Hornets’ nest possession, a Houston victory seemed nearly certain.

But everything came unraveled for the Rockets from that point forward. Attempting to put the game away with another bucket, Landry was stripped in the lane by Emeka Okafor leading to a James Posey three-pointer at the other end. The next time down the floor, Landry – so reliable in crunch time for Houston all season – rimmed out a midrange jumper, as Paul compounded the Rockets’ pain with an old fashioned three-point play to cut Houston’s lead to 1.

Desperately needing a basket to stem the tide, the Rockets failed to get a quality look as New Orleans forced them to settle for nothing more than a Trevor Ariza long-range heave just before the 24-second clock expired. Paul then went back to work, this time finding David West wide-open for an elbow jumper which barely even touched the twine on its way through the net, giving the Hornets their first lead since New Orleans held a 24-22 advantage toward the end of the first quarter.

The final 47.6 seconds offered little variation from the previous two minutes. Houston suffered a turnover as a result of a questional offensive foul call on Landry and missed two more shots while Paul continued to maintain full control of the game, on his way to finishing with 28 points, 9 assists and a huge role in Houston’s most disappointing loss of the season.

“When they needed scores and they needed stops they got them, and when we had opportunities, we didn’t capitalize on them,” Ariza said. “They did what they do best, and that’s get the ball to Chris Paul and let him make plays.”

The defeat took some of the luster off the terrific performances turned in by Chuck Hayes (9 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists) and Kyle Lowry (12 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists). Both players were tremendous throughout in a game which witnessed the good vibes earned over the course of 45 minutes of solid play erased by the breakdowns of those agonizing final few minutes.

QUOTES

Rick Adelman 

On the game: “I’m very disappointed with the loss.  I’m trying to find out what an offensive foul is.  That’s all I want to find out is what an offensive foul is.  Is it more than slapping a guy’s hand away, is it more than stepping in front of a guy, is it more than putting a shoulder down? I don’t know.  That’s all I’ve got to say about this game, otherwise it’s going to cost me.” 
 
Aaron Brooks:

On 19 Rockets turnovers: “We made some careless passes. I don’t really look at our turnovers as much as I should, we just had a bad game.” 

On the offense: “If you look at it, we all shot the ball over 50 percent [48.6]. Last game I was open and had 26 shots, this game we passed it around.” 

On the fourth quarter: “We got some shots. That’s where the game was won. We’re just going to try to not let that happen again.”

Hornets Head Coach Jeff Bower: 

On the team’s performance tonight: “I’m really happy and proud of our guys for how they won, for the fact that we won without playing our best game tonight, for dealing with foul trouble, trying to contain a very efficient and potent offensive team.” 

“I didn’t think we were playing especially well for the first two and a half quarters, and we had a lot of things not go our way.  But once again, we showed a resiliency and a mental toughness to continue competing until things did turn our way.” 

“We had stretches that we had breakdowns, but when we needed stops, we defended and really tried to keep them contained.  Our bigs were staying in front of the ball as help defenders and we were doing well with that. We were getting hurt with the dump-offs after the rotations, and had to stop the ball, and that’s the type of threat that Houston gives you.” 

“As we’ve seen, a lot of these games are close.  The difference can be one or two plays.  That’s what we’ve been talking about, taking one more step, making one more shot, making one more play.” 
 
Hornets Guard Devin Brown: 

On defensive effort: “We’ve been focusing on our defense the last couple of games. If we can step our defense up and give ourselves a chance, we’ll be a pretty good team.” 

On what a win like this means to the team: “We’re continuing to play well here at home.  Someway, somehow, we’ve got to find that on the road, but right now we need to take care of home.  Especially this month, we don’t have that many home games, but the ones we do we have to win.  This is a great start.” 

On play down the stretch: “D-West makes a shot.  CP makes a shot.  Those guys are all-stars.  They live for it inside six minutes every game.  That’s what makes you work so hard during the summer.  Those guys stepped up and made plays.  I’ll tell you what--our defense looked really good the last three minutes.”  

Hornets Forward David West: 

On being mentally tough down the stretch: “Just being able to finish the game out.  (In Houston) we played well for three quarters, and they were able to stretch the lead open.  Like I said, late in games, being able to close the game out, that’s what we’ve been looking to do.  ” 

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