--Eventually, Rockets coach Rick Adelman said, he will try to limit playing time. But not now.
With Shane Battier out and Tracy McGrady slowed by his sore right knee, Adelman said he would have to extend Yao Ming's and Ron Artest's minutes many nights. On Thursday, Yao went 41 minutes, Artest 39, with Artest needed for some of the defensive workload that Battier normally handles and both needed to provide offense the Rockets usually get from McGrady. "Tracy is probably the key guy," Adelman said. "How much (do) you play him and is he going to be fresh at the end of the games? I don't have that answer. You are going to see some guys play more minutes than I would have anticipated.
"Right now, I don't think it should be any problem at all. Hopefully, we get our rotations down and won't have to worry about that as much."
---All night, coach Rick Adelman planned to put Chuck Hayes on Dirk Nowitzki. Hayes is the Rockets' best interior defender. Nowitzki had rolled to 35 points in three quarters. Adelman would have liked to go back to Carl Landry, who had made all three of his shots and both free throws in his eight minutes, but Adelman had to get Nowitzki stopped.
"All along I was going to play Chuck on him," Adelman said. "The thing I worried about was Chuck getting three fouls in the first half. In the second half, I had to put him on him. He's going to do the best job."
Through three quarters, Nowitzki made 10-of-19 shots. In the fourth, he went 0-for-3.
"He killed us the first three quarters," Hayes said of Nowitzki. "He absolutely had his way with us. For us to be able to win, I have to do my best to keep him out of those scoring situations. Our defense wasn't great tonight. The fourth quarter was good. We got the stops when we needed them. The first three quarters they had their way. In the fourth quarter, we were able to shut them down."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Everybody that played, played well. It shows we can be pretty good. -- Coach Rick Adelman.
