Sports / Basketball |
Rockets rout Warriors 118-90(AP)Updated: 2006-12-06 14:33 HOUSTON - Tracy McGrady scored 31 points and dished out seven assists and Yao Ming added 27 points as the Houston Rockets routed the Golden State Warriors 118-90 on Tuesday night. Chuck Hayes grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds and Juwan Howard added 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Rockets, who shot 54 percent (45 of 84) against the NBA's worst defense. Houston won for the sixth time in seven games. McGrady showed no effects from the concussion he suffered after taking an elbow from Dikembe Mutombo in Saturday's win over Cleveland. McGrady hit 13 of 25 shots and grabbed two rebounds with three steals. Yao, meanwhile, manhandled Golden State's big men, making 12 of 17 shots, most of them dunks and layups. He also had eight rebounds. Houston was the fourth straight opponent to reach at least 108 points against Golden State. The Warriors came in allowing an NBA-worst 106 points per game. Monta Ellis scored 19 and Baron Davis added 18 for the Warriors, who've lost four in a row since Coach Don Nelson earned his 1,199th career victory. Nelson is trying to join Lenny Wilkens as the only coaches to reach the 1,200-win plateau. The Rockets led by 15 after the first quarter, by 21 at the break and 93-68 heading to the fourth quarter. They've won six in a row at the Toyota Center. Yao and McGrady sat out nearly all of the fourth quarter. The Warriors, the league's best shooting team, shot 39 percent (32 of 82) against Houston's league-leading scoring defense. Guarded futilely at the start by 6-foot-11 Andris Biedrins, Yao scored the Rockets' first 11 points, the last six on easy layups. Troy Murphy, also 6-11, replaced Biedrins with 6:53 left in the first quarter, but Yao promptly rebounded a McGrady miss and threw down a one-handed dunk. The Warriors, averaging 105 points per game, missed 12 of their first 15 shots and trailed 26-7 eight minutes into the game. Murphy hit a jumper from the free-throw line to end Golden State's three-minute scoring drought, but Yao answered with an easy baseline jumper. He got a standing ovation as Juwan Howard replaced him with 3:23 left in the quarter. With Yao out, McGrady carried the Rockets' scoring, finishing the quarter with 11 points. The Rockets led 35-20 after one, their highest-scoring quarter of the season. Yao returned in the second quarter and the Warriors resorted to double-teaming him. But Yao still towered over all of Golden State's defenders and caught a high pass from Luther Head for another dunk and a 39-22 lead. The Rockets went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line in the first seven minutes of the second quarter and McGrady's 3-pointer with 5:03 left in the half put Houston up 56-28. In the third quarter, Adonal Foyle took his turn defending Yao, but Yao dropped in a hook shot, then assisted on McGrady's dunk that put the Rockets up 79-54. |
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