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Head helps Rockets roll over Wizards
Houston 92, Washington 84
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Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- During the past two weeks that the Rockets have been forced to play without Tracy McGrady, Rick Adelman has encountered only one significant problem with his replacement.
He can't get Luther Head to shoot more.
"He's got to get himself in position to shoot," Adelman said. "As good of a shooter as he is, he's still having trouble taking the darn thing."
Head at least shot enough to beat the Wizards.
Behind a hot shooting performance from the third-year guard, the Rockets rolled to a 92-84 victory Tuesday night over the Washington Wizards at Verizon Center.
The Rockets (18-17) improved to a game above .500 and picked up their third consecutive win for the first time since November. Houston also boosted its record to a surprising 5-3 this season without McGrady.
Head, of course, played a major role in that. With the Wizards determined not to allow Yao Ming to beat them, Houston's perimeter shooters were forced to pick up the scoring slack.
Head responded with a season-high 24 points, netting 8-of-13 shots and canning four three-pointers.
He still passed on some shots. But he's becoming less hesitant.
"Whenever you see Yao, your No. 1 option is to get him the ball," Head said. "I sometimes get a little hesitant on my shots. Coach gets on me about it. He's been getting on me since training camp. Hopefully, I can continue to have some confidence and not go to Yao so much."
Head's steady performance helped keep the Rockets seemingly in control from start to finish.
Despite surrounding Yao with double and triple teams as soon as the national anthem was finished, the Rockets had little trouble moving the basketball and finding open shots within the offense. Head scored 11 points in the first quarter to boost Houston to a 31-24 advantage through the opening 12 minutes.
Surprisingly, that was as close as it got the rest of the way. By limiting Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to a combined 26 points on 9-of-29 shooting, the Wizards never posed a serious threat over the final three quarters. Houston maintained a cushion throughout the second half, stretching its lead to as much as 14 points.
The Rockets finished shooting 47.8 percent and outrebounded the Wizards 46-28.
"We felt in control," said Rockets point guard Rafer Alston, who had 15 points and 10 assists. "We just knew that we had to find a way to take care of the basketball, but we never did that tonight. We were able to withstand their runs. They never got closer than six or seven points."
Adelman suspects that the game wouldn't have even been that close if his team had done a better job of taking care of the basketball. Houston had 22 turnovers.
"We can't do that," Adelman said. "We're not good enough. A lot of it was just carelessness. We were making poor decisions and putting ourselves in a bad spot. We have to make the first available pass and not try to make the difficult play. We have to make the simple play."
Head, meanwhile, is learning to take the shot that he's being given. On Tuesday night, the guard showed what kind of production he can have when he isn't passing up open looks. Adelman is hoping that he shoots even more in coming weeks.
"Coach still thinks that I passed up on some shots tonight," Head said. "But when I see Yao, I always feel like it's a target that I need to get the ball to because he's so effective. I've just got to take the shots when I have them."
