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Landry guides Rockets to sixth straight road win
Houston 106, Indiana 103
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Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- Despite making the hour-long trek across Indiana, Carl Landry's former college coach and teammates at Purdue couldn't stick around for the second half of Friday night's game because of a quirk in the NCAA rules.
The Boilermakers missed quite a show from their alumnus.
The former Purdue star netted 13 of his season-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, guiding the Rockets to a thrilling 106-103 victory over the Indiana Pacers Friday night at Conseco Fieldhouse.
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Behind the rookie's most impressive outing of the season, the Rockets (26-20) opened a three-game road trip across the Northwest with their sixth straight win outside of Houston. The streak is the longest away from home since the team won eight road games in a row during the 1996-97 season.
With Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming struggling to get into an offensive rhythm and the Pacers bombarding Houston with a three-point shooting barrage, the Rockets owed their latest win to Landry. The Rockets' second-round draft pick canned five of six shots in the final period, including the bucket that put the Rockets ahead for good.
Landry, a Milwaukee native, turned his college homecoming into a coming out party.
"I'm happy to be back in Indiana," Landry said. "It's the same thing I do every night. I try to give energy and I try to help my teammates."
He was asked to provide more help than usual against the Pacers.
Though McGrady returned to the lineup after a one-game absence from the flu and Yao was coming off one of his biggest games of the season, neither star could get on a roll against Indiana. McGrady had 19 points and nine assists, but made only 6-of-19 shots. Yao, meanwhile, endured a 4-of-12 shooting performance against the Pacers' persistent double teams, closing with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The Rockets shot a collective 43.2 percent.
The shooting effort from Houston's two stars was troublesome because the Pacers were sizzling from beyond the arc. Indiana sank 12 three-pointers as both Danny Granger and Shawne Williams hit a trio of shots from beyond the arc. Granger led Indiana with 22 points.
Luckily for the Rockets, Landry was on target. He swished or dunked 9-of-11 field goals and carried his team in the waning moments when Houston needed someone to sink a shot.
Who would have guessed that it would have been a rookie helping Houston close out a game?
"When you have veterans on the team, you really don't pay attention to the rookies because they're not on the court that much,'' McGrady said. "I didn't know he could shoot the ball like he's been showing lately and I didn't know he could finish the way he's finishing.''
The Pacers bolted to a 97-92 lead after Granger sank a jumper with 5:30 remaining in the game.
That's when Landry took over.
With Indiana focusing its attention on McGrady and Yao, Landry got loose. He beat Indiana's defense for a pair of shots within three feet and ended Houston's 11-4 spurt by burying a 12-foot jumper after the defense left him to trap Rafer Alston. With that, Houston seized a 103-101 advantage heading into the closing two minutes.
Over a minute later, Landry added a free throw that pushed the Rockets to a 104-101 lead. Indiana inched a little closer after Mike Dunleavy got a layup to slice Houston's advantage to 104-103. But that's as close as the Pacers got. Shane Battier made two free throws with six seconds remaining to stretch the lead back to three points. On the ensuining possession, Dunleavy was well short on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer that could have sent the game into overtime.
Landry's effort drew rave reviews from his coach and teammates. The rookie is a recent addition to the rotation after being on the inactive list for much of the season. Now, his playing time is only going up.
"He's truly played well in practice all along,'' Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We wanted to see how he responded to game conditions. Every time I've played him in the game except once, he's been effective. He's very live and he's very active."
Landry wished his college coach and former teammates would have been around to see the finish.
But on Saturday night, the Wisconsin native will get another chance to play in front of family and friends when the Rockets visit the Milwaukee Bucks.
Yao hopes Landry has another big night -- even though he doesn't quite agree that the rookie should have two homecomings.
"Hometown doesn't count as college," Yao said. "But whatever makes him feel better."
