T-Mac spoils Blazers party

PORTLAND, Oregon — Make no mistake about it. Tracy McGrady is back in shape and the Houston Rockets are playing heads-up once again in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

With McGrady sidelined because of a strained back, the Rockets went nowhere and posted a 0-8 record. But with T-Mac in uniform, Houston has won three straight and four of its last five outings to move to 7-12 this season. As expected, it was T-Mac who made the difference in the Rockets’ 100-86 win over the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden here Sunday night. He poured in 35 points, including 11 in the fourth period, and grabbed seven rebounds to disappoint the home crowd of 12,886 fans.

McGrady’s thundering dunk boosted the Rockets’ lead to 15 — their biggest in the game — at 72-57 early in the fourth period.

Blazers guard Sebastian Telfair played only seven minutes in the first half due to a sprained right thumb but came back with a vengeance in the payoff quarter as he tried to take charge down the stretch. The six-foot sophomore fired 14 of his team-high 17 points in the last eight minutes to no avail.

Houston center Yao Ming fouled out with five minutes left but neither Joel Przybilla nor Ha Seung Jin could take advantage of his absence. Both bumbling Portland centers are not legitimate post threats.

Portland coach Nate McMillan tried to slow down the tempo in a defensive tactic to prevent the Rockets from pulling away early. The trick, however, backfired as the Blazers struggled in the halfcourt with Telfair issuing brilliant passes only for his teammates to miss.

What made matters worse for the Blazers was their sloppy play. Portland was slapped 14 turnovers to Houston’s seven. Compounding the Blazers’ woes, the Rockets scored more points off turnovers, 21-7 and fastbreak points, 18-9. Portland shot only 38 percent from the floor compared to Houston’s 45.6 percent.

Portland star Darius Miles, sidelined with a knee injury, was not on the bench. He attended the funeral of Quentin Richardson’s brother in Chicago and was excused. Miles is due for minor surgery next week.

Yao got into early foul trouble and wasn’t much of a factor, finishing with nine points and five rebounds in 24 minutes. Luckily for Houston, reliever Dikembe Mutombo stepped up to compile seven points and nine rebounds in 17 quality minutes.

Yao showed up wearing a bandage over his right eye. In a game against Boston last week, Yao suffered a cut that took eight stitches to close from a Brian Scalabrine elbow.

For a while, Telfair and McGrady — both Adidas endorsers — faced off in a scoring duel during a torrid exchange in the fourth period. Telfair hit a driving layup off Yao to trim Portland’s deficit to eight at 74-66 with eight minutes left. McGrady countered with a baseline incursion then Telfair buried a triple. McGrady replied with a field goal and Telfair stripped Luther Head of possession to sink a fastbreak layup, cutting the margin to seven at 78-71. It was the closest the Blazers got to the Rockets count the rest of the way.

Telfair, a big McGrady fan, wore the Adidas T-Mac 5 pair against the Rockets. He said he’ll wear the Adidas "intelligent" shoe — featuring a microprocessor chip — if picked to play in the Rookies versus Sophomores game at the All-Star Weekend in Houston in February.

"The biggest factor is Tracy is back and healthy," said Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy. "Whatever we are, we’re just trying to do things better. You try to do the right things more of the time like McGrady getting on the floor for loose balls and McGrady taking a charge. Your best players have to see things as blue-collar workers, work hard, practice hard, play hard, get on the floor for loose balls, get in front of somebody going to the rim."

Rockets guard David Wesley said, "T-Mac is back. The last couple of games, we played much better defense. We’re shooting it better. We’re controlling the ball. We’re just doing what we do better. There’s just a much better flow out there."

The San Beda team that won the Adidas Asian Streetball Finals this year got a special treat when the four players— Borgie Hermida, J. R. Tecson, Bam-Bam Gamalinda and Shaq Taganas — were lined up to slap high fives with the Blazers as they were introduced on the court coming out of the dressing room before the game.