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Van Gundy wants players to feel his pain
Because he does not overreact, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy has coolly and dispassionately assessed the season so far and reached a few simple conclusions.
His team stinks. His team's coach stinks. This season stinks. Are you in?
"You can treat last night's loss as business as usual. It happens in the NBA," Van Gundy said. "Or you can treat it like Armageddon. My world is crumbling because I was part of a disastrous meltdown. "I'm so sick of losing I can't stand it. I mean, it's just painful." Van Gundy made no effort to conceal the pain oozing from him, but it seemed to be about more than losses in three of the past four games, interrupted only by a wholly unsatisfying victory at New Jersey. It was not even a hangover left from blowing an 11-point lead in the final six minutes Tuesday and losing to the then 1-5 Hawks, who had been getting outscored by an average of 15 points a night. As much as he tends toward self-condemnation, Van Gundy openly has questioned whether he is getting through to a team built in part to share his vision. When it was said that nine games into his second season in Houston he operates with relative job security, Van Gundy said that should not be assumed. When he spoke of the Rockets' problems, he said that if he were evaluating the team as an outsider, he would blame the coach. "If you weren't the coach of the team and (looking at) two (losses) in a row," Van Gundy said, "you're playing hard against the Lakers, and you're working, and it's 78-78, and you foul on the perimeter in the penalty. And you go down, and you foul 94 feet from the basket, and you go on and lose. Then two games later, you foul (leading by) three 94 feet from the basket, and then you turn it over to put them up.
But Van Gundy cannot solve the problems — turnovers, foul-prone defense and horrible rebounding — if the message does not get through to the players on the NBA's most experienced team. After losing to Minnesota last Thursday, Van Gundy said he has not been able to get the Rockets to understand the importance of starting games well. After the loss to the Lakers on Saturday, he said his players think he is "overly demanding." With Tuesday's loss to Atlanta, he questioned whether he had emphasized properly how to play with a lead. In each case, he seemed to point to a lack of urgency and commitment. "We have a two-game losing streak right now," Van Gundy said before the Rockets played the Nets on Monday, "and I can't even breathe. "For a lot of guys, not just in our room, but in general, it's business as usual. That's sometimes unfortunately how we approach it." With a roster that includes only three players with career winning records — Charlie Ward, Yao Ming and Bostjan Nachbar — Van Gundy wonders if over the years the Rockets have accepted losing too easily. "I think when you play in the playoffs every year, you know how hard it is to get there," Van Gundy said. "Sometimes I'm not sure when it hasn't been an every-year occurrence they realize the ending of the Minnesota game or ending of the Lakers game can be the difference between winning and losing (in the playoffs) or making it or not. Coaches and teams that have won together ... have a better (understanding). "When you have lost a lot over time, it just doesn't raise the same antenna. 'So we lost two games. The best player (Tracy McGrady) was out. We'll get better.' Us playing six of seven (including the games in New Jersey and Atlanta) on the road, I'm not sure." But Van Gundy's opinions, he said, are strictly from a candid analysis. The Rockets defend as if they are playing in ski boots. They grab rebounds as if they are using chopsticks. And they play hard — occasionally. "I'm not overreactionary," Van Gundy said. "I think a lot of people in this league underreact. I'm not overreactionary. When you're on a two-game losing streak, I don't know how you can live with losing two games like we did in a row at home." The implication seemed to be that his players were living with it just fine. Professional athletes can be accomplished at feigning disinterest, but Van Gundy often seems concerned about whether the Rockets are embracing his points as seriously as he does. "I always listen to, 'Oh, they're going to tune him out,' " Van Gundy said. "Who tunes out a coach? I have a good idea of guys who would — uncoachable guys, guys who are not interested in winning. So I don't have any fear or that. I think our guys want to win. I don't worry about getting tuned out. Guess what? I'd like to tune them out at times, but we have to work together to win. "Do you fly off in a rage every day? No. You make your points how you feel is best suited to making your points. But you have to correct." Besides, to tune him out, the Rockets would have to first tune him in. Whether the NBA's oldest team is too stuck in its ways to get the message remains to be seen. "Everybody comes from a different background and a different perspective as far as what it takes and what you will be satisfied with," Van Gundy said. "I think I've been blessed in this league and have a good history with what wins, what wins some of the time, and what wins all the time. So I think I can say with pretty definitive authority what we need to do. "How that is received — I'm a little softer now — but I really don't give a ( ... )." |
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