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Monday April 28, 2008 5:13 PM


Rockets remain confident even as they face elimination


Utah at Houston, Game 5, Tuesday, 8:30 p.m.



Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer


HOUSTON -- During the last few minutes of practice on Monday afternoon, Bobby Jackson fired a basketball off the backboard after missing a free throw.

The reserve point guard's frustration was immediately met with laughter from his teammates.

Despite being a setback away from being bounced from the postseason, the Rockets are hardly a dejected bunch.

"We've always been loose," Rockets point guard Rafer Alston explained. "That's the way we've been throughout the ups and downs of our season. We've got to stay loose. But we understand what's at stake."

Despite their long odds for extending their season, Alston and Co. are still confident that they can turnaround their first-round playoff series heading into Game 5 Tuesday night at Toyota Center.

The Utah Jazz have a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, meaning the Rockets will have to win three straight to avoid getting an early start on summer vacation. Only eight teams in NBA history have recovered from such a deficit to win a series.

The Rockets are well aware of that their situation doesn't look promising. But even though their margin for error has vanished, the Rockets remain confident that they can recover.

That is, after all, what the Rockets have been doing throughout this season.

"I have tremendous confidence in this group because of what they've done this year," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "They've been very resilient."

Two recoveries stand out.

First, the Rockets were deemed one of the NBA's most disappointing teams after a 15-17 start. But rather than folding, Houston responded by rolling through February without a single setback.

But even in the midst of that run, Houston's playoff hopes were dealt another significant blow when All-Star center Yao Ming was lost for the remainder of the season with a fractured foot.

How did the Rockets respond to that? By finishing the season with the best record in the NBA since Jan. 1.

The Rockets are hoping to draw from that resilience to keep their season alive.

"We've got to win or we're going to have our fishing caps on," Rockets forward Carl Landry said. "We've won 22 games in a row so winning three shouldn't be that hard. But we've got to take it one game at a time."

The playoffs will be over unless the Rockets find a way to solve Utah's defense.

Tracy McGrady, the Rockets' leading scorer, has been bottled up by Utah's double teams and the Rockets have struggled to knock down shots. Through the first four games of the series, Houston is shooting a mere 39.9 percent. Only the Dallas Mavericks are shooting at a lower rate in the postseason.

Adjustments? Adelman said his team has to have better movement against Utah's physical defense.

"We have to move a little bit more and Tracy is going to have to do a little more where he's moving," Adelman said. "We have to be more aggressive. Utah is playing just like we anticipated them playing. We've got to respond to that. We're trying to put in some more things. We're trying to cut more and not stand as much. I think we've been playing way too much pick-and-roll because if you do it continuously, they get good (at defending it). We need to mix in some things."

The Rockets, of course, are confident that their latest set of adjustments will turnaround the series. Despite their current circumstances, Alston and his teammates are optimistic that they can recover one more time from a dire situation.

"It would hurt to lose back-to-back seasons to the same team," Alston said. "But we're in the situation that we're in. To not be eliminated (in Game 5), we have to come out with a focus and intensity level that allows us to stay in the ball game."