Lopez sees the light at the point
As our handful of Bad Sports listeners know, I have been pretty adamant that the Rockets will not be a true Western Conference contender so long as someone named Rafer Alston is manning the point.
Chronicle columnist John Lopez, one of the last Rafer holdouts, has finally come around to that view:
In fact, it may already be the biggest reason between the Rockets being in a better playoff spot and losing games like they did Sunday night at the Toyota Center.
As some of you know, I have been saying since last year that the Rockets can win with Rafer Alston running the point. In fact, they can. But can they contend? Can they win a playoff series?
That's where I need to correct the assessment of Alston as point guard for a team that fancies itself as a title contender. Two years is way too long for Alston to still not have wrapped his arms around this club and made it his own. Two years is way too long for moments to arrive like crunch-time in the season's biggest game thus far Sunday night, and Alston disappears.
Alston's ball-handling is among the best in the NBA. He keeps turnovers down, energy high and has knocked down some big 3s.
But as I watched the game from a sports bar here in Atlanta, where I'm covering the Final Four, on another TV screen was the Spurs and Pacers. Right there in living color were difference-making point guards not afraid to take over, the Spurs' Tony Parker and the Pacers' Jamaal Tinsley, who won the game for Indiana on Sunday with a last-second drive to the hole.
That's what is missing with the Rockets.
Yes. That's why some of us hoped the Rockets might try to get point guard help at the trading deadline.
With T-Mac, Yao, and Battier, this team is very good. But it needs a really good point guard to push it into that upper tier in the West (perhaps with Alston as a reliable backup).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/04/07 09:50 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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