The Rockets believed in their retooled backcourt but had to be worried about nights like Monday.
They replaced Rafer Alston with two point guards less than 6 feet tall. Chauncey Billups would seem to be just the sort of bigger, more physical point to punish the Rockets for relying on small point guards. Billups looked very much like the guy who was a Finals MVP and Nuggets savior, but between them, Lowry and Brooks played him evenly.
Billups had 28 points and five assists in 44 minutes. Between them, Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry combined for 26 points and eight assists, hitting the final four free throws to ice the win.
They also pushed the tempo to help negate Billups' size advantage, with Brooks especially using his speed to answer Billups' strength.
"He has to make him guard him and he has to push the tempo a little bit," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "I think he has an advantage in quickness and speed. He just has to use it. I think he is (making progress) and as a result, our team is getting better."
ROCKETS 97, NUGGETS 95: For weeks, Shane Battier could not hit a 3-pointer. For 47 minutes, the Rockets could barely make free throws.
Both had once been specialties. Battier is a career 38.6-percent 3-point shooter who had made two of his previous 24 attempts. The Rockets are an 80.5-percent free-throw shooting team, third best in the NBA, but had made just 16-of-31.
With the game on the line, however, Battier nailed a corner 3-pointer to give the Rockets a seven-point lead with 1:02 left. And after struggling from the line all night, the Rockets nailed their four free throws in the final 9.9 seconds to ice their 11th win in 13 games.
