--For the third straight game, the Rockets blamed their lack of defensive intensity. They felt they did not defend well against the Mavericks all game, or against the Grizzlies and Kings in the first half, losing both games on the road. They were most disappointed by the effort in Sacramento, where they fell into a 14-point first-half hole. "We were getting beat on penetration time after time," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "The concentration and effort was not where we needed it to be. We're not going to come out (ahead) unless we come out with effort every night. We're not that good.
"I'm very disappointed with the first half because we didn't come out with the intensity. They got it going and we gave up 63 points. You're not going to win in this league doing that on the road."
--With Byron Scott's dismissal in New Orleans, five consecutive Coach of the Year winners before Cleveland's Mike Brown winning last season all shortly moved on after getting the award, a trend Rockets coach Rick Adelman, who is 11th in career coaching wins but has never won the award, noticed.
Scott, Sam Mitchell and Avery Johnson were fired. Mike D'Antoni left in a mutual agreement with the Suns. Hubie Brown retired.
"I've always said it's something you don't want to see come your way," Adelman said. "Be mentioned, but don't get it."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It just shows, you dig yourself a hole, you have to work three times harder to get out. As hard as we worked in the third quarter, we were still down. That just shows how important that first half was. The energy definitely wasn't there. We were being blind-sided by our own success offensively. I guess we figured if we're scoring, everything's OK, but it's not." -- Rockets center Chuck Hayes.
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