With Battier As Backbone, Look For 2009-10 Rockets To Never Give Up

(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Despite their shortcomings, the Houston Rockets are still poised and ready to make a run for postseason play this year in the NBA.

We may not have a team of All-Stars, but we do have one secret weapon that has propelled the Rockets to numerous victories; Shane Battier.

As we've all seen, Battier does a lot of everything; from hustling for loose balls, to playing defense against the best of the bests, to draining 3’s from the corner; Shane is everywhere.

Add him with young additions such as Trevor Ariza, Chase Budinger, and Pops Mensah-Bonsu; plus up-and-coming stars such as Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry, and Luis Scola, and you very well might have a playoff bound team.

Rockets Head Coach Rick Adelman has to be happy with the team he has hitting the hardwood in Houston, despite the fact they will begin the year without Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

Let’s not forget to mention names like Chuck Hayes and Kyle Lowry as they both played pivotal rolls in the Rockets run last season.

Houston also added a new big man in signing 6-11 David Anderson, and although he is a rookie, hopefully he can quickly pick up the game with leaders such as Battier, Brooks, and Adelman close by at all times.

There’s absolutely no doubt that this season will be a challenge for the Houston Rockets. But, we can still have a very successful season regardless of what you hear on ESPN or other sports networks.

We’ll have to play quick basketball and hustle constantly. We’ll also have to hit our open shots and focus on playing good, hard defense. Basically, we just need five of Shane Battier playing every second of the game.

If every Houston Rockets player and coach will put in as much time, effort, love, hard work and determination for their team to succeed as Battier, we will have a great season and return to the playoffs.

I personally have no doubt that team work, true chemistry, and discipline will lead the Rockets to a great 2009-10 season. It will take a lot of work and it will likely take some bumps along the road; but if the Rockets can learn from their mistakes and continue to fight and never give up, Houston is bound to make a statement this year.

In their next to last preseason game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, Oct. 19, the Rockets took care of business in a 105-85 victory.

“We had a very nice offensive night but tonight I was more proud of our defense,” Battier told Rockets.com following Monday’s win. “People have to understand this is who we have to be every night. We have to be a team that fights, attacks, plays loose and at the same time stays true to our principles."

“We don’t have the talent to just be Team Cool and turn it on in the fourth quarter and expect to win ball games. We have to come out and scrap for every loose ball, every rebound and be the aggressor every single night. And the sooner we figure that out on a nightly basis, the better this team will be.”

DEFENSE WILL BE KEY

On top of having a young-gun team, the Houston Rockets will also have to put a lot of time and focus into playing solid defense.

And if the Rockets can play up to the tempo they played against the Thunder in a 20-point preseason victory on Monday night, they have a promising season ahead of them.

“I was just really pleased, especially with the second half,” Adelman said following Monday’s victory.

“I thought the whole game we moved the ball really well as a team, but in the second half we defended situations a lot better. We made it tougher on them and got in the open court a lot. That’s about as well as we’ve passed the ball all year long – just a wide variety of people."

He also spoke about the Rockets mistakes.

"We turned it over too much in the second half, but when you’re going to try to do things in the open court you’re going to make make mistakes sometimes. But, overall, I thought we were pretty good in the second half.”

Battier agreed with his coach’s impression of Monday’s win, laughing when talking about scoring a small victory defensively.

“I was much more pleased with our second half effort,” Battier said after Monday’s win over the Thunder. “They only scored [52] points in the first half – we kept them under 60 today, so small victory. But tonight we showed each other the type of effort we’re capable of playing with."

“It’s only the preseason but we have to find out what we’re capable of doing and when we’re flying around covering for each other, playing defense the way we know we should, that’s going to be the standard now.”

OFFENSE HAS TO REMAIN A BALANCED THREAT

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