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Thursday March 20, 2008 2:43 PM


Rockets anticipating a tight finish in the West


Houston at Golden State, Friday, 9:30 p.m.


Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer


OAKLAND -- The Rockets deboarded their charter plane in Northern California early Thursday morning with their first losing streak in two months.

Before suffering back-to-back losses to Boston and New Orleans, the Rockets hadn't dropped at least two in a row since a two-game skid in mid-January. Back then, they were hoping to overcome an up-and-down start to get back in the playoff picture.

Eight weeks and one historic winning streak later, the Rockets have thrust themselves to the top of the Western Conference heap.

But the funny thing is their outlook hasn't changed between losing streaks.

"Winning games is the most important thing right now (in the playoff race)," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "I don't think you think about winning the West. Ask San Antonio. They were the first team, lost four games and now they're the six seed. You just gotta win games and see where everything settles after that."

Welcome to reality in the West.

Despite making their remarkable surge up the conference standings, the Rockets haven't booked their trip to the playoffs -- much less locked up home-court advantage in the opening round.

With a few more losses, the Rockets could even be locked in a scramble just to get into the postseason. That's how it is in the West where a 22-game winning streak hasn't given Houston much separation in a crowded race. The Rockets (46-22) are tied for third in the West with the Phoenix Suns and have a mere 3 1/2 game advantage over eighth-seeded Golden State. The Nuggets, meanwhile, are six games behind Houston with a little less than a month remaining in the season.

The Rockets begin the most significant stretch of the season Friday night against the Warriors.

"This is a time where we really need to be mentally tough and focused going into every game," Rockets shooting guard Tracy McGrady said. "Right now, we're playing Western Conference teams and playing teams that are fighting with us for playoff spots. We're on a two-game slide so we gotta get ourselves together. It's getting harder every game."

The Rockets are hoping to recover from their sudden turn in fortune against Golden State.

In their past two losses, the Rockets have struggled to generate any offense in the second half as both Boston and New Orleans relentlessly doubled McGrady. The star averaged 12.5 points in the past two outings. The Rockets, meanwhile, scored a grand total of 59 points in the second half of those defeats.

With Golden State on deck, the Rockets can be optimistic about rediscovering their offense. The Warriors, after all, are allowing a league-high 107.9 points per night.

That's not to say the Warriors won't try to implement the same defensive formula that worked for the Celtics and Hornets.

"We're trying to improve," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "It's not about the record right now and it's not about the season. It's about trying to improve as a basketball team. We know we have our work cut out for us. We have a big challenge ahead of us this weekend."

The Rockets, in fact, have a brutal schedule in front of them.

Beginning Friday's game at Golden State, Houston will play seven of its next nine games on the road. The stretch features games against three teams vying with the Rockets for playoff positioning -- Golden State, Phoenix and San Antonio.

With such an unforgiving slate ahead of them, the Rockets aren't thinking about locking up the top spot in the West.

They've still got a long way to go before considering that a goal.

"We'd like to be in first," Rockets point guard Rafer Alston said. "But we've got to approach the game like we did prior to (the two losses). We have to compete. We've got a tough stretch in front of us."