--The Rockets had waited more than a month for a day like Friday. And then it turned into a different version of so many others.
For the first time since Dec. 18, the Rockets had their entire playing rotation at practice without restrictions. It was by all accounts a particularly energetic practice, with a good scrimmage. Then Yao Ming stepped on Tracy McGrady's left ankle, McGrady hit the court, and another practice ended with another player out.
McGrady sprained his left ankle and missed Saturday's game against the Golden State Warriors. He is considered day-to-day.
"Oh man, if it ain't one thing it's another," McGrady said. "Right now, it's hard to tell with these things. High ankle sprain. What can you do? I think this isn't something that's going to keep me out of the lineup for multiple games.
"It's just frustrating. Practice was going so well. I was getting out there and going at it -- one of the few practices I was able to practice and go at it for the whole practice -- and I got 300-something pounds land on my ankle."
--The Rockets spent two days talking about defense. In the second half against Golden State, they put talk into action.
"We made an effort to protect the paint," Shane Battier said.
"They had only 22 paint points. Any time you force people to take non-paint shots, generally, you're going to play better defense. We really talked about 'Let's keep the ball out of the middle of the floor, let's limit penetration.' It was nice to see a concerted effort to keep the ball out of the paint and live with jump shots.
"Defense is not complicated. If you give people (only) jump shots, over the long run you're going to have good numbers."
The Warriors scored just 22 points in the paint, making just 35.7 percent of their shots in the second half.
"As the first half went on, our effort and energy level dropped some," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said.
"We kept talking about in the third quarter that we had to have more energy: 'They played last night; we have to be the aggressors.' We worked hard yesterday defensively on helping and trying to get back to where we were defensively. I thought tonight, our guys really were in tune to that."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Hopefully, this is a sign of something. Hopefully, this game is where it turns around ... and we get on a streak." -- Ron Artest, after Saturday's victory over the Warriors.
