<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> PHOENIX — As little as Yao Ming knows about American football, he showed on Wednesday he has the sentiment down for awarding a game ball.</p> Yao grabbed the last rebound and, with the final three seconds ticking away, he found Steve Francis and gave him the ball. Francis already had taken the game.</p> For 47 minutes, the Rockets could not quite shake the Phoenix Suns. But in the final 30 seconds, Francis powered to the rim for a tough layup and stripped the ball from Amare Stoudemire to send the Rockets to a 100-94 victory over the Suns before 18,422 at US Airways Center.</p> "I'm proud of him," Yao said. "He found himself, and he played a great game. I'm happy to play with him again. I'm happy for him. He came a long way."</p> Francis saw action for only the fourth time in 16 games this season. But he had by far his greatest impact to help give the Rockets just their fourth win in their past 16 games against the Suns.</p> "It showed that (coach Rick Adelman) is slowly developing confidence in me," said Francis, who had nine points and seven assists in 27 minutes. "That's what I've done throughout my career, help teams finish games."</p> The Rockets had to do many things well and differently to get in that position, starting with the most obvious shortcomings in their 115-105 loss to the Suns on Nov. 17 — Yao's offense and everyone's defense.</p> Yao still had trouble, especially early. Seeing the customary Phoenix double teams, Yao had four of his six turnovers in the first quarter. But he more effectively freed himself from the Suns' defense to make 12 of 19 shots for 31 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, to go with 13 rebounds.</p> "The first game we played against the Suns, we did not have (Tracy McGrady) so they sent a lot of people to double team, particularly Shawn Marion jumping around," sad Yao, who was 4-of-16 that night. "I could not even catch the ball. (Wednesday), Tracy was back so I got the ball close to the area I usually shoot the ball. And the perimeter guys knocked down jumpers."</p> <h3>Defensive tinkering helps</h3> With the Rockets 28th in the NBA in 3-point shooting (30.8 percent), they made eight of 16 on Wednesday.</p> But the biggest difference was defensively. After allowing 31 fast-break points to the Suns in the first meeting, they gave up just 10 on Wednesday. The Suns made only 41.5 percent of their shots after making 62.3 percent in the first game against the Rockets.</p> "We were terrific defensively in the second half," Adelman said. "I think that was the whole key to the win.</p> "The first time we played them, we gave them so many baskets quickly. (Assistant coach Elston Turner) had a stat where they had 11 baskets within four seconds. We got back better. We locked in on their pick-and-rolls. (Steve) Nash was unbelievable, but we were doing what we wanted to do."</p> But those adjustments did not seem to be enough. The Rockets' offense began to crack in the final minutes as Nash, who finished with 29 points, took over on the other end.</p> Even after a possession in which Shane Battier, Francis and Yao blocked shots with a four-point lead, the Suns were within 94-92 with three minutes left.</p> The Rockets were in the midst of missing six of seven shots, most forced to beat the shot clock with things breaking down, before Yao hit a jump hook with 1:08 left. Nash answered, and the Rockets again could not find a shot.</p> </p> <h3>Getting aggressive</h3> This time, however, Francis took off on a strong drive, giving the Rockets a four-point lead with 29.9 seconds left.</p> "Just knowing a lot of us were settling for jump shots late, we needed to be aggressive and try to get to the basket," Francis said.</p> Added Adelman: "That's one thing Steve can give us. He has the ability, and he attacks the basket. I've talked to him about that. When we kick it around to him, instead of shooting the 3, take it to the hole. He made an unbelievable shot. He's going to get in better shape. He's going to be valuable for us."</p> On the next trip down, when Yao stepped out to challenge Nash on a pick-and-roll, Francis rotated over and stripped the ball from Stoudemire to seal the victory.</p> "I knew he was going to try to dunk it," Francis said. "I didn't want to foul him. Fortunately for me, I was able to hit all ball."</p> Moments later, Francis held the ball in his hands, finally happily exhausted.</p> </div></p> Source: Houston Chronicle</p> Another by-product of Francis playing well could be the competition it creates for Alston. If Francis continues to play well and push for Alston's minutes, Rafer might spend the extra time working on his broken jumpshot and cleaning up his game. This offense has always been guard friendly, but Alston hasn't figured out his comfort zones yet. Bringing more intensity on defense would also be something Alston should work on.</p>
Outside of Battier, I would say Alston puts in more effort on the defensive end than any of our guards. The idea that he doesn't play any defense is a misconception. Trust me, JVG would not have been so supportive of him if he was a lazy defender. Not that Alston is an elite defender or anything. He struggles a lot against bigger guards, and in general against guards who finish well around the basket. But, by and large, he plays smart team defense, does his best fighting through screens, he's good at getting deflections, and he probably stays in front of quick guards better than any of our other options (just as last year). One thing he could do more of is try to draw charges. I don't recall him even attempting to draw a charge once since he's been here. Much like his game on the offensive end, he shies away from contact.</p> </p>
