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Rockets finally subdue Raptors in overtime
The Raptors were not making much of a move. There were no screaming hostile road fans. There were not even screaming friendly home fans. Then the Rockets found themselves up by 12, and their double-digit demons all but guaranteed nothing would come easily. But blowing leads every night does, if nothing else, prepare for such occasions. So with a sudden 6-0 run, the Rockets rallied past the Raptors for a 90-89 overtime win Wednesday night at Toyota Center. The game, the second consecutive overtime game for both teams, and the second overtime they have played against each other this season, was not decided however until a Donyell Marshall drive rimmed out just before the buzzer. But the Rockets pulled ahead when Bostjan Nachbar scored four overtime points, his only points of the night, and Steve Francis had a tip dunk. Yao Ming led the Rockets with 25 points and 17 rebounds. Francis added 17 points and nine assists. Vince Carter led the Raptors with 26 points. Carter, who made half his 20 shots, drilled a pair of overtime jumpers to put Toronto ahead 86-84 with 2 1/2 minutes left. Cuttino Mobley missed a 3. Maurice Taylor missed a jumper. And Carter went for the kill. But his trey missed, and the other small forward finally showed up. Nachbar had missed his five shots when he drained a floater in the lane that tied the game 86-86 with 1:43 remaining. Jalen Rose missed a jumper before Francis crashed in to slam a Yao miss back in, giving the Rockets an 88-86 lead with 64 seconds to play. Marshall came up short on a 3, and with 51.9 seconds to play, Nachbar pushed the Rockets to a four-point lead and within one defensive stop of the win. But just as he had against the Rockets in Toronto, Chris Bosh nailed a trey from the corner that threatened to change the game. Taylor missed with 15.4 seconds left, and the Raptors went for the win. The Rockets took a 13-0 run to a 60-48 lead with 4 1/2 minutes left before the fourth quarter. The Raptors were 4-19 on the road when trailing heading into the fourth quarter, with the Rockets 19-4 when leading that late at home. But these days, there is little that signals trouble as much as a doule-digit lead, and the Rockets' slide began precisely on cue. The collapse was not nearly as dramatic as in Portland or as precipitous as against the Suns. But with the Rockets holding an 11-point lead, the Raptors scored their next eight points, and the game had become hauntingly familiar. Before Francis made two free throws, the Rockets' offense had produced four turnovers in three minutes, forcing Toronto to hang around within range. Even when the Rockets went ahead by seven in the fourth quarter, it seemed certain the game would come down to its final seconds, likely that the Rockets would have to come from behind. The Raptors took their obligatory lead midway through the quarter when a Rod Strickland jumper completed an 8-0 run. The Rockets recovered from that and led 80-77on a Taylor jumper with 3:24 left. But Marshall -- who had scored two point in the game's first 44 minutes, got loose for a layup and then knocked down a trey that put the Raptors in front 82-8, with 1:43 remaining. Mobley quickly swept in for a layup to tie the score and to give the Rockets 87 seconds to score just once more for the win. Neither team scored again. Francis missed a pullup jumper from 17 with 4.9 seconds left. A Rose bullet went through Bosh's hands. And a large portion of the Toyota Center crowd announced as 14,388 was so thrilled to have been given five more minutes, it headed for the doors. After building and blowing sizable double-digit leads in three of their past four games, the Rockets did not come close to that problem in the first half on Wednesday. The Rockets never got their offense going well enough to build much of a cushion through most of the half. The Raptors were not much of an offensive force either, generally settling for jump shots rather than going at Rockets defenders. Even Carter, who had a 12-point, eight-rebound first half, rarely went inside where help defense was waiting, relying instead on fadeaway jumpers. The combination made for a sleep-inducing half. But after the Rockets went nearly eight minutes in which they made just one of 10 shots, they still led by one. Eric Piatkowski ended that stretch with a 3-pointer. But it took the Rockets another four minutes before they hit as many as two consecutive shots. That gave them a 35-30 lead, and they led by as much as six, 43-37, when Francis set up Charles Oakley for a layup, his first field goal of the season, in the last minute of the half. But the Rockets did not have anything that approximated control or the usual double-digit lead, which might have been a good thing |
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