Rockets hold on to beat wizards 86-82
| Houston Rockets' Tracy McGrady (1) pulls up for a jump shot as Yao Ming (11), of China, Washington Wizards' Caron Butler(3) and Gilbert Arenas look on in the first quarter of their NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006 in Houston. |
| Nov. 23 - Yao Ming had 25 points and 14 rebounds, Tracy McGrady added 13 points and 12 boards, and the Houston Rockets survived another fourth-quarter meltdown to beat the Washington Wizards 86-82 on Wednesday night.
Luther Head made three free throws in the final three seconds and scored 12 for the Rockets, who overcame 22 turnovers to drop Washington to 0-6 on the road this season. Gilbert Arenas scored 26 and Caron Butler added 14 for the Wizards, who were doomed by poor shooting. Arenas, the league's fourth-leading scorer, went 8-for-26 from the field and Washington finished 28-for-84 (33 percent). The Rockets also had a 57-44 edge in rebounding. Still, the Rockets had to sweat out another finish. They'd been outscored in the final quarter of six of their first 11 games, and Arenas' 3-pointer with 5:43 left finished a 13-2 run that trimmed Houston's lead to 72-71. The Rockets missed 11 of their first 14 shots of the fourth. The Wizards had seven chances to take the lead, but each possession ended with a turnover or another missed shot. Arenas fouled Head on a 3-pointer with 2:33 left and Head sank all three free throws to put the Rockets up 75-71. Arenas missed a bank shot at the other end before Head sank a 3-pointer from the corner to end Houston's 5 1/2-minute field-goal drought. Butler and Arenas went 8-for-10 from the free throw line over the next minute and Washington trailed only 80-79 with 29 seconds left. Alston swished a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left, but Arenas banked in a 3 with 3.8 seconds left to keep the Wizards within one. Head sank a free throw with three seconds left, then rebounded his own miss, got fouled and sank two more to finally put away the game. Houston reserve Vassilis Spanoulis sank a 3-pointer and scored on a driving one-hander in the final minute of an ugly first quarter to give the Rockets a 23-15 lead. Washington missed 17 of 23 shots and was outrebounded 17-10 in the opening quarter. McGrady drilled a 3-pointer 20 seconds into the second quarter to push Houston's lead into double digits. Antonio Daniels and Arenas converted back-to-back three-point plays to trim the Rockets' lead to 31-24. Yao started 1-for-5, then hit two turnaround jumpers in the last 90 seconds of the first half to carry the Rockets to a 40-28 lead at the break. The Wizards finished the half a dismal 11-of-44 from the field (25 percent) and their 28 first-half points were a season low. Washington hit five of its first eight shots of the second half to get within five. But Yao had found his range by then, too, and sank a pair of turnarounds to extend the lead to 51-40. Yao had eight points in the third quarter and flipped in a hook shot early in the fourth to give Houston a 68-56 lead. But the Rockets went cold after that and Butler's emphatic dunk over Yao with 9:03 left foreshadowed the rally to come. But it fell short and Washington lost its fifth straight game to the Rockets in Houston.
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