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Monday, Feb. 28 10:30pm ET
Rockets limit Clips to 26.8 shooting | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Even Rudy Tomjanovich felt sorry for the Los Angeles Clippers. The Houston Rockets held the Clippers to 26.8 percent shooting and established a club record for the lowest field-goal accuracy by an opponent in their 96-77 victory Monday night. "This is a tough league," Tomjanovich, the Rockets coach, told Clippers forward Tyrone Nesby in the Staples Center corridor after the game. "It's tough if you make it tough," was Nesby's reply. The Clippers made only 26 of 97 shots and set a franchise low for field-goal percentage. The Rockets eclipsed their previous best defensive effort, set Feb. 5, 1969, when they were based in San Diego and held the Cincinnati Royals to 28.7 percent. "We talked this morning and before the game about rededicating ourselves on the defensive end," Tomjanovich said. "And we had to do that tonight because we didn't shoot the ball real good."Cuttino Mobley scored 21 points and Houston's reserves scored 63 points as a unit, helping the Rockets snap a five-game losing streak despite shooting 37.8 percent. Matt Bullard added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Rockets, who were without Hakeem Olajuwon as they ended a seven-game road skid. The Rockets' career leading scorer flew back to Houston for tests to determine the cause of his fatigue, which plagued him during the previous three games and limited him to only 13 minutes on Sunday against the Lakers. Rookie Lamar Odom had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers, whose 28th loss in 31 games coincidentally was their 28th in their last 31 meetings with the Rockets. After trailing by as many as 25 points with 6:22 left in the third quarter, the Clippers got seven points from Odom in a 1:37 span to fuel an 18-3 blitz. Odom's 3-pointer capped the rally, slicing Houston's lead to 72-62 with 1:13 left in the period. Mobley and Carlos Rogers did all the scoring in a 9-0 run early in the fourth to extend the margin to 83-64 with 8:11 left, and the Clippers got no closer than 13 points the rest of the way. Houston never trailed, building a 58-36 halftime lead with 10 baskets from 3-point range and a combined 27 points from Mobley and Bullard. The Clippers, who shot 25.5 percent in the opening half, missed 33 of their first 42 field goal attempts . Maurice Taylor, still upset about not going to the New York Knicks before the trading deadline, shot 2-for-10 in the half and 4-for-17 for the game. Taylor got into it with the angry home crowd of 12,940, which gave him a sarcastic cheer after his layup cut the Rockets' lead to 17 points with eight minutes left. As he left the court during a substitution, the three-year veteran forward answered the fans with an equally sarcastic raise-the-roof gesture. "We're all human and this is a stressful job that we have," Odom said. "And sometimes we let that stress show. We're all young and we all make mistakes -- I'm not saying that was a mistake, but it might not have been the best thing to do." Steve Francis, who missed 15 consecutive shots during a two-game span -- including his first nine on Sunday against the Lakers -- missed his first seven attempts against the Clippers before a dunk with 10:22 left in the second quarter. He finished 2-for-12. "I'm mad about it, but I just have to keep going through it because I've never been through a spell this season like this where I couldn't shoot the ball," Francis said. "I got open looks and a lot of my shots were going in and out. But I'm going to stay aggressive and keep doing the things I was doing when I was hitting shots." Game notesOlajuwon, who has played in only 34 of Houston's 57 games, had surgery on Dec. 1 to repair a hernia and returned to the Rockets' lineup on Jan. 13. He shot 3-for-7 from the field in each of his last three games and totaled 22 rebounds in 64 minutes. "He's wondering why the progress in his conditioning wasn't there after he came back," said Tomjanovich, who didn't know when Olajuwon would rejoin the team. "He's been really short of breath, having trouble catching his breath and getting tired very quickly, so we'll see what happens." ... The Rockets are the only team to have games against the Lakers and Clippers at Staples Center on consecutive nights. ... The Rockets signed third-year guard Moochie Norris for the rest of the season, after his second 10-day contract expired. ... Kelvin Cato, who led the Rockets with 21 points in a 122-100 victory over the Clippers on Dec. 30 at Houston, missed his fifth consecutive game because of a sprained left ankle. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Houston Clubhouse LA Clippers Clubhouse RECAPS Dallas 108 Boston 100
Houston 96
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