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Saturday November 8, 2008 3:08 AM

Ugly But Effective


Rockets outlast Clippers, 92-83

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

Los Angeles - The Rockets returned to the win column in the land of glitz and glamour. Their style points will have to come later.

Houston (4-2) chalked up another ugly victory in a young season which has thus far seen plenty of them, beating the winless Los Angeles Clippers, 92-83 before a listless crowd of 14,670 at Staples Center.

Ron Artest led the way, scoring 23 points primarily thanks to his deft touch from beyond the arc where he went 4-of-7 on threes. The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Rockets and helped ease the pain of their last second overtime loss to Portland the night before.

"It still wasn’t an impressive game for the Houston Rockets,” said Artest after the game. “We haven’t played our best ball yet. We have a long ways to go… We’re trying to learn each other and find out how we’re going to win together. Some nights it’s just going to be different people, and we’ve got to get used to that. I think sometimes we just step into the arena and think we’re going to win, just because of our talent. And it can happen like that. But that’s not going to beat the good teams. We really have to give a lot of effort.”

The Rockets actually started strong, apparently eager to get the bad taste out of their mouth from the night before. Yao Ming (16 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks) set the tone with a pair of blocks, and Luis Scola was unstoppable on the offensive end, scoring 14 points in the opening frame.

Houston’s first quarter domination was best encapsulated in one possession which included two offensive rebounds from Chuck Hayes, before Artest collected yet another Rockets’ miss, finally finishing things off with a lay-up to stretch his club’s lead to 25-10.

Unfortunately for Houston, its offense grew stagnant at that point and the Clippers took advantage, scoring the game’s next twelve points to cut L.A.’s deficit to three. Both teams then spent the rest of the quarter trading baskets until Carl Landry capped off the sluggish period with a two-handed jam in traffic with four-tenths of a second left in the half, giving Houston a 49-41 lead heading into the break.

“I thought we could have been much better defensively,” said coach Rick Adelman. “When Yao’s out, especially, we’re not very big which means we have to be quicker and cover better, and I didn’t think we did a good enough job doing that tonight. That’s an area we’ve got to get better at.”

The second half saw the Clippers continue to chip away at the Rockets’ lead, as Houston struggled to find any sort of offensive consistency; especially with Tracy McGrady (2 points, 0-of-5 from the field) ailing due to flu-like symptoms. In fact, L.A. had multiple opportunities to tie or take the lead, but never could quite manage to get over the hump.

The Rockets finally managed to generate some breathing room in the fourth quarter, though, in large part due to the inspired play of Carl Landry. The second-year forward from Purdue scored 10 points and grabbed 7 boards in the final frame, the most impressive of which came when he grabbed his own rebound off an errant elbow jumper then drove in for a monster dunk over the Clippers’ Chris Kaman to put the game away.

“I just tried to stay aggressive,” said Landry (20 points, 9 rebounds). “We got off to a good start, and they fought back. I knew we needed this game. After losing two games we needed this one. We stayed hungry and never gave up.”

Notes: Despite feeling under the weather, Tracy McGrady is expected to play Sunday against the Lakers... Yao Ming underwent precautionary x-rays after the game for a bruised right knee. The results came back negative and he, too, is expected to play Sunday night.

Quotes:

Rick Adelman

"Luis got us going and then Carl came in and did a nice job. We have a nice balance at that position and it showed tonight."

(on Yao showing more energy): "He did, but when they double him as quickly as they’re going to do, we’ve got to find a way to make them pay for that. That’s just something we’ve got to work on. But I thought early in the game he did a nice job."

(on Rafer Alston's play): "Rafer played well. I wanted to keep him in the game in the second half because of Baron Davis… We’ve got to find him spots where he’s not just shooting threes; where he can get to the basket - tonight he did that a little bit. We need to get him in situations where he can create a little bit and get to the basket, and maybe get some easy attempts for himself and then maybe the threes don’t become such a huge deal every time down."

Carl Landry

(on his improved play): "I went back to the drawing board and watched some film with some of the coaches and tried to review why I was getting fouls the last two games, and why things were happening the way they were. I tried to adjust and had to respond. And tonight I did."

Ron Artest

(on his comfort within the Rockets' offense): "It’s just weird because some nights you might get two shots and others you might get twenty shots. I’ve just got to be ready to do the right thing as far as moving the ball and always playing defense. That’s the only thing I’ve got to worry about."

(did he take the sort of shots tonight he typically wants to take within the offense?) "No. Tracy was out, so I had to pick up the slack. When Tracy is out of the game, then I’ve got to do a little bit more. But that’s not my role. My role is to play off Yao and Tracy."

(on teams doubling Yao Ming): "Yao’s a beast down there and they’re coming to double him so fast that we’ve got to knock down shots for him. And he’s doing a better job of taking that one dribble and throwing the ball out. Eventually, they won’t be doubling him too often, especially at the end of the game."

Rafer Alston

(On Rockets play vs. Clippers): “We played unselfish. An ugly win is just as good as a good win. No matter what the other team’s record is you have to come out, and you still have to play.”

Clippers Head Coach Mike Dunleavy

Re: Clippers’ effort

“We played at a pretty high level. We are still not there yet, but I saw some good progress tonight and we have to just keep working at it.”

Re: Eric Gordon’s play

“As he gets better in practice and better defensively, while learning our system and rotations. He will get more comfortable and the more comfortable he gets the more opportunities he will get.”

Clippers Chris Kaman

RE: Play of Clippers:

“Offensively we just weren’t able to finish and until that starts to happen I don’t see us winning a game. Defensively we are doing better and having a stronger effort together as a team.”

Clippers Forward Al Thornton

RE: Looking at upcoming game vs. Dallas

“I think we played a great game tonight, there is nothing to dwell on. We just have to put tonight’s game behind us and focus on practice tomorrow and get ready for our next opponent on Sunday.”

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