http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2236683 THERE were moments when it was sheer brilliance. This wasn't Jeff Van Defense's team on display at Toyota Center -- pushing, shoving, making the Golden State Warriors see red and white and black-and-blue all over. It was Jeff Van Showtime and his high-flying charges putting forth a ballet- like performance, improving dormant season shooting percentages on virtually every beautiful trip up court. That was real basketball out there for much of the second half. It was the kind of basketball that belied the brutal early-season statistics that cast something of a foreboding shadow over the Rockets' fast start. Statistics like only four teams in the league passing out fewer assists than the Rockets. Statistics like only two teams committing more turnovers. "If you combine hard play with smart play," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said, "there is no ceiling for you. ... You have to be efficient in what you do. The running game feeds into open shots ... you have to take what you can." But here, against a nice-looking Warriors team that features the likes of Jason Richardson, Cliff Robinson, the much-improved Erick Dampier and Speedy Claxton , the Rockets made NBA basketball pretty again through much of the first and third quarters. Yao Ming was spinning off sharp elbows in the back and floating in soft shots. He was exactly what Yao should be for this team -- finesse wrapped in grit. Steve Francis was pumping, faking, passing, turning, fading away for treys. He was exactly what Van Gundy wants him to be, capable of taking over a game, but not hellbent on it. Bostjan Nachbar looked like the latest Manu Ginobili to hit the league -- a soft shot from the outside, a hard closer on the inside and hustle everywhere. Jim Jackson was practically playing a game of horse from the arc. It was sheer brilliance. But then the brilliance became so sheer you could see right through it. Only Van Gundy could see red after this one, because he knows what became so clear down the stretch. "We're running on bloody stumps because we're shooting ourselves in the foot repeatedly," Van Gundy said. "I give them so much credit -- they work so hard; they pay attention; they want to win. But they've got to want to change this part of themselves." The bloody-stump finishes, as Wednesday's nearly became. These Rockets are capable of playing complete basketball. This team is armed and capable of displaying a beautiful offense that complements crushing defense. It's just not quite always smart enough to get the job done. Despite this 85-83 win, Van Gundy was refreshingly candid in exploring the reasons the Rockets let slip a third-quarter lead and turned away from all the things that got them in control in the first place. Beginning with a poorly executed off-balance 3-point attempt by Cuttino Mobley with 2:35 remaining and the Warriors holding a two-point lead, all the things that were pretty got ugly. Yao had just scored six consecutive points, blocked a shot and come away with an offensive rebound. Van Gundy, naturally, called a play for his star center, and Yao posted up. But no one got him the ball. Later, Mobley missed another leaner, and the Rockets proceeded to miss all but two of their final nine shots along with three of their last four free throws, narrowly escaping a disastrous end. "You have to play freely, but you also have to play intelligently," Van Gundy s aid. "If Yao (posts up) after scoring four or five times in a row and you pass him up, that's not smart play." Although Van Gundy might have stopped short of jumping off a cliff over old hab its dying hard -- it was, after all, a win -- his toes definitely were hanging over the edge. The free and easy golden touch of a pretty third-quarter offensive performance wound up looking only like fool's gold, because the Rockets couldn't sustain it . Most frustrating: The near disaster wasn't because of any terrific defensive adjustment the Warriors made but because of the Rockets' own mistakes. These are the things that can be impossible to stomach and the reasons why if much of the league's downward trend in scoring is because of better defense, that's not necessarily the case with the Rockets. "If your team consistently doesn't play intelligent basketball," Van Gundy said , "you're destined for mediocre ... maybe a little above, a little bit below, whatever. We've got to get smart." -- 徵求翻译团队，意者请回我的信箱 --

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