rockets kill denver

Tracy McGrady shook off a poor start to score 32 points, Mike James gave
Houston a huge lift off the bench and the Rockets won their fifth straight
game Saturday night, 115-87 over the streaking Denver Nuggets.

James scored 23 points, Yao Ming had 13 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks
and his backup, Dikembe Mutombo, added 11 points, 12 rebounds and three
blocks to help the Rockets end the Nuggets' 10-game winning streak in a
Western Conference showdown critical to playoff positioning.

With two games left before the playoffs, the Rockets (49-31) wrestled away
control of sixth place in the West and now hold a tiebreaker over the
Nuggets (48-32) in case both teams finish with the same record.

Houston also moved a half-game behind Sacramento for the No. 5 seed. The
Kings played at league-leading Phoenix on Saturday night.

The Rockets will close the season with home games against the Los Angeles
Clippers on Monday night and Seattle on Wednesday night. The Nuggets play at
league-leading Phoenix on Monday night and end with a home game against
Portland on Tuesday night.

Kenyon Martin led the Nuggets with 22 points and nine rebounds, the first
time in nine games that Carmelo Anthony didn't lead Denver in scoring.
Anthony had 16 points on 4-of-17 shooting.

The Nuggets definitely could have used starting center Marcus Camby, who sat
out because of a strained right hamstring.

Without its top defender and rebounder, Denver was especially vulnerable to
the Rockets' suddenly diverse offensive attack.

McGrady started attacking the teeth of the Nuggets' defense after making
only one of his first eight shots, and eventually had his way with a variety
of defenders ranging from point guard Andre Miller to Anthony and even the
6-foot-9, 234-pound Martin.

McGrady, who scored 45 points in a Jan. 9 win over Denver, also opened up
things for his teammates, who combined to tie a season high with 15
3-pointers on 63 percent shooting. McGrady even turned up the intensity on
other end of the floor, frustrating Anthony with unusually aggressive
defense at least for him.

Coming off a 111-102 win over Memphis on Friday night, the Nuggets looked
nothing like a team in the second night of grueling back-to-back games at
least in the game's early minutes. Denver raced out to an 18-4 lead and led
by 10 at the end of the first quarter.

But led by their reserves, the Rockets made a furious rally before the end
of the half.

Mutombo made two free throws to give Houston its first lead of the night,
43-41, with 4:34 left in the second. McGrady closed the half with
consecutive 3s, the last on a nifty behind-the-back assist from Jon Barry,
to put the Rockets up 56-49 at the break.

The Rockets eventually wore down the plodding Nuggets at the end, scoring
the first six points of the fourth quarter to take an 86-70 lead.

McGrady punctuated the win by crossing over Denver forward Eduardo Najera,
causing him to stumble before hitting a 3-pointer that gave Houston a
19-point lead with a little more than 9 minutes left.

The Nuggets never got any closer after that.

Notes:@ Houston is the only team other than Phoenix to beat Denver in the
past 27 games. ... Denver guard Greg Buckner played after missing the
previous three games with a fracture in his right hand. He had six points in
19 minutes. ... With 13 more points, McGrady will join Elvin Hayes, Moses
Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only other Rockets to score 2,000 points
in a season. ... Swimming star Michael Phelps, who won eight medals in the
Athens Olympics, and Illinois junior guard Deron Williams, who is
considering entering the NBA draft, were among those in the sellout crowd.