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Sunday March 23, 2008 4:01 PM


Adelman has guided Rockets back into contention


Sacramento at Houston, Monday, 7:30 p.m.


Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer


PHOENIX -- Nearly two months into the season, the Rockets had gone from potential conference title contender to playoff hopeful.

They were trailing nine teams in the Western Conference and struggling to manufacture points in a new offensive scheme. Unsurprisingly, the Rockets were considered one of the league's most disappointing teams.

But during that surprising turn of events, the Rockets noticed an odd thing in the locker room. Their coach -- Rick Adelman -- hardly seemed fazed by the rough start.

"Rick is a calm guy," Rockets point guard Rafer Alston said. "We were losing six and seven in a row -- and Rick didn't flinch."

Instead, the veteran coach turned things around.

Two months and one historic winning streak later, Houston's first-year coach has guided the Rockets back among the Western Conference's leading contenders with a remarkable midseason turnaround.

The Rockets (47-23) have recovered from a 15-17 start to surge to the fifth best record in the West. Right now, they're a mere 1 1/2 games behind the conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers with less than a month remaining in the regular season.

The Rockets punctuated their turnaround by producing a 22-game winning streak -- the second-longest run in NBA history -- that briefly elevated them into the Western Conference lead for the first time in a decade.

With that historic run and impressive turnaround, Adelman has emerged as a leading candidate for the NBA's Coach of the Year award heading into Monday's game against the Sacramento Kings.

"It's been very satisfying," said Adelman, who can become the 13th coach in NBA history to win 800 games by beating the Kings. "It's not too hard for me to remember the way it was. We were shooting very poorly, we were very inconsistent and we had a difficult schedule. We were up and down and all over the place."

Adelman's patience and willingness to experiment with new lineups changed that.

During the first two months of the season, the Rockets struggled to adapt to Adelman's free-flowing, share-the-ball offense. Rather than getting good movement and swinging the ball around the perimeter, the Rockets were prone to watching Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady shoulder the scoring burden.

But things started to shift when McGrady missed 11 games with a knee injury. Adelman understood his team couldn't be successful relying solely on Yao since opposing defenses would swarm the All-Star center. With that being the case, the coach forced his team to make harder cuts and share the ball.

Adelman even tweaked his rotation. Seeking easier baskets in transition, Adelman plugged rookie point guard Aaron Brooks into the lineup and eventually moved Luis Scola from key reserve to starter. He also inserted Carl Landry into the rotation -- a rookie power forward who had played sparingly in the first two months. The moves worked as all of the young players made significant contributions.

When McGrady finally returned, the Rockets were flowing better than ever on the offensive end.

"When we lost Tracy, we had guys step up and really doing more things," Adelman said. "(When we were struggling), I said I was going to give it about 25 games and evaluate where we were. That's when I started playing Carl, Aaron and Luther (Head) to change it up a little bit. We kind of caught fire at that point. That's the time we started turning it around."

That's not to say the Rockets didn't hit another significant snag.

In the middle of their 22-game winning streak, Yao was lost for the remainder of the season with a fractured foot. Unsurprisingly, the Rockets' playoff chances were widely dismissed after losing the 7-foot-6 center.

But Adelman found a way to make things work. He adjusted from a post-up game to one predicated on even more ball movement with McGrady coming off the pick-and-roll.

The result: The Rockets are now a team confident that it can win without one of the NBA's best big men.

"We have people that are much more confident in what they can do," Adelman said. "This team really trusts each other and they play hard. This team plays hard every night. They don't take nights off and they don't take possessions off. They don't always play hard, but they play well."

Adelman's plan coming into his first season in Houston was to mesh a well-balanced offense with one of the league's best defensive teams.

For all practical purposes, the Rockets have maintained the defensive identity that they gained from former coach Jeff Van Gundy. But on the offensive end of the floor, they're different.

Rather than relying McGrady to do everything, Houston is sharing the ball. The Rockets have scored at least 100 points in 11 of the past 17 games.

The funny thing is that the Rockets are just scratching the surface of what they can do in Adelman's scheme. Throughout his career, Adelman had led some of the most prolific scoring teams in NBA history.

Eventually, the Rockets are hoping to join that group.

"He's got more calls because it's taking the guys a bit longer to get it down," said Bobby Jackson, who played for Adelman in Sacramento. "When we were in Sacramento, we just ran corner and elbow and played out of it. That's what he's trying to get to here."

Adelman has so far engineered one of the most impressive turnarounds in the league this season, even after playing significant stretches without his star players.

Now, he's given his team a chance to contend in the Western Conference. Who would have guessed that when the Rockets were searching for answers back in early January?

Well, maybe Adelman. After all, he never panicked.

"Rick has been through every situation in the NBA for 30 years so there's no situation that surprises him," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "He's been great even when there was trouble early on. He maintained faith in our team and kept telling us to believe in the plan."