Rockets itching to play

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Rockets itching to play

Team has had week off between preseason games

As they stretch from one end of the Toyota Center bench to the other, with 19 players filling every seat and beyond, the Rockets look like a baseball team spreading across the dugout.

And as they have gone through day after day of practices and scrimmages, they have been more like a football team, with six days to fill between games.

Tonight, the Rockets finally will get to be a basketball team again as they play the Dallas Mavericks and return to a normal NBA life, if there is such a thing.

The Rockets' third preseason game, and just their second against an NBA opponent, comes just in time. And not only to keep them from killing each other.

"It was such a long layoff between games, we need to get out there and get some work, especially against an NBA team," guard Rafer Alston said. "We need to play a game. We need to see how far away we are from being ready for opening night.

"We scrimmaged game-like for two days and (Wednesday), worked on some sets. It will be nice to get out there and go against opposing competition."

After a week of preparing, the Rockets need a test, even the relatively modest test of a preseason game. More specifically, they need to find if they have worked out the bugs of an offense that was dangerously turnover prone against the New Orleans Hornets and Panathinaikos and in the simulated games against one another since.

"I know we share the ball together," center Yao Ming said. "We swing the ball. Everybody gets touches, shoots the ball and has turnovers together. It sounds like a team."

The problem with all that togetherness is that the turnover bug has been passed around like a flu someone packed along for a road trip. Everyone gets it.

Coach Rick Adelman has not been amused. He put the Rockets through long scrimmages Monday and Tuesday and through scrimmages and drills on Wednesday, hoping to sweat the virus out of them.

"We can't continue to make the same mistakes," he said. "I'll give you an example. Our big guys have the ball, and the guy makes a good cut, and they throw it right into the hands of their defender. It's where they are, where they have the ball. Sometimes guys are trying to make great plays.

"What is hard about what we're trying to do is a guy may make a great cut and may be open against his guy, but in our league, he draws the defense. You have to see the defense. That guy makes a great cut, somebody else is probably open. We're trying to throw it to that guy without looking at the team defensively. That's a process we have to keep going through."

By Wednesday, Adelman was much happier about practice. But the measure will be today against a Dallas team that last season was among the league's best defensively (fourth in points allowed, seventh in opposing field-goal percentage).

"I think they're one of the better teams in the league, so it's always going to be good to see what your concentration is defensively and how you execute (offensively), because they are a good offensive team," Adelman said. "We haven't played for a week, so we'll see how sharp we are."

The Rockets also will see something they have not seen in a week: an opponent trying to stop them in ways they cannot predict. The progress of a week's worth of work to make their new offense run better will be gauged when another team tries to stop it.

"You see what you have to do to counter against an opponent," Alston said of facing other teams. "Opponents love to take away the first option, sometimes the second option. It will help you better read the defense and give you a better understanding of the third and fourth option in the offense, especially with the offense we have. We need the games."

Adelman liked the idea of the break. The Rockets got some work in, maybe got a few things ironed out, and will get to be an NBA team again tonight.

"I don't know about six (days between games)," Adelman said. "Sometimes it's good to have a break where you can just practice and not play so many games. I think it was good for us. We were able to do some things and scrimmage and put some things in during this time frame.

"Usually, I put things in a lot quicker than I did this year because I knew I had this time coming. Now, we'll play more games in more days (five games in eight days), and we'll get in a little bit of a groove before the season starts."