Tracy MacGrady in the game

Rockets close preseason with setback to Spurs

San Antonio 99, Houston 92

Before catching a flight to San Antonio for a quick, seven-hourexcursion to San Antonio, Tracy McGrady informed the Rockets' coachingstaff that he wanted a full workload in Friday's preseason finale.

He had a good reason.

"I want to make sure we're ready to go for opening night on Tuesday," McGrady said.

He found out the Rockets still have a few things to fix before opening the season.

Behind a hot start from Tim Duncan and the rest of the Spurs, SanAntonio closed the preseason with a 99-92 victory over the RocketsFriday night at the AT&T Center.

The Rockets, which finished the preseason with a 3-4 record, didn'trest any of their starters until the late stages of the fourth quarter.But even after playing their starting five for at least 24 minutesapiece, Houston couldn't overcome the Spurs' hot-shooting performance.

With Duncan swishing open jumpers and Michael Finley delivering a16-point effort, the Spurs canned 51.3 percent of their shots anddrained nine three-pointers.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman wasn't thrilled with his team's final showing of the preseason.

"I wasn't very happy with the way that we played," Adelman said. "Wewere forcing the issue on the offensive end. We only had nine assistsso that tells you we weren't passing the ball. We missed a lot ofshots."

The Rockets, which had four players reach double figures, shot 41.1percent from the field. McGrady had the strongest effort by scoring agame-high 21 points, but he produced that output after making only9-of-22 shots. Luis Scola, who shot 6-of-14 from the floor, had 14points and 10 rebounds.

Unfortunately, Houston didn't fare much better on the defensive end.

Despite pregame plans to keep Duncan out of the lineup, the Spursforward suited up and scored 10 points in the opening quarter, pacingthe Spurs to 31-24 lead. He made several jumpers from 18 feet without ahand in his face.

Finley then took over his act in the second quarter. The swingmanscored 12 of his 16 points in the period, helping San Antonio maintaina 54-48 halftime advantage. The Spurs eventually stretched that lead toas much as 15 points.

"We were a step behind on defense," Adelman said. "We have to close out quicker."

The Rockets at least had Rafer Alston back in the lineup, who returnedafter missing the past two preseason games with a bruised right thigh.The point guard had two points and three assists in 24 minutes.

But beyond Alston's return, the finale wasn't as smooth as Adelmanwould have liked. Fortunately, they'll get a few days to fix it beforeopening the season against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

"It should be a good learning experience for us," Adelman said.

[ 本帖最后由 风の语 于 2007-10-27 12:27 编辑 ]