Easy baskets have been difficult to come by for the Rockets' Trevor Ariza, left.
NEW ORLEANS — Trevor Ariza made his move without hesitation, as if he had been unstoppable throughout the night and knew that with the game on the line he would not be stopped one last time.
He bolted past James Posey and with two dribbles was between Darius Songaila and David West, finishing with a two-handed slam. Game over.
Ariza ended the Rockets' win over the Hornets with that move and had one like it past Devin Brown earlier in Tuesday's game. By Thursday, he had a similar flourish against the Mavericks, finishing with a spin move.
With each, Ariza seemed to be taking small steps back from his shooting slump. But he also added to the oddity of his struggles, as if a player who could score so easily should never have been finding it so difficult to put the ball in the basket.
But his slump had dragged on for weeks, spreading from his 3-point touch to his drives into traffic and even to the free-throw line.
Frustration boils over
In the six games since a strong shooting performance against the Thunder, Ariza, a 6-8 guard/forward, has made just 19 of 73 shots, including five of 30 3-pointers, and sunk 18 of 28 free throws. That does not include an 0-for-9 afternoon in Toronto when the frustration overwhelmed him and he threw a forearm to earn a one-game suspension.
“We've been talking about it,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said after a 2-of-10 night. “I just think we have to look at the shots he's getting and the shots he's taking.
“He's got to be more aware, I think, and see what shots he's getting and where he's getting them. He might be (pressing). Things were going pretty well for him; now he's struggling a little bit. That's all the process of learning where you are going to get your shots and not forcing the issue.”
But in the past two games , there have been more determined and decisive moves.
“I've got to get back to being aggressive, I think,” Ariza, 24, said. “We have a lot of options. Lately, I was shooting the ball more than I'd like to instead of getting to the basket. I've got to be more aggressive. That gets us points.
“I've been struggling, so getting to the basket is what I do best. I've got to get back to that. That (setting up 3-point shooting with drives) is how it worked for me last year, except I was getting wide-open 3s. This year, they're not so wide open, but the lane is open more. I've got to get into there.”
Indecisive play
When the Rockets get more practice time this month, they could seek additional ways to put Ariza in position to drive, rather than catch and shoot. Much of that has to come with a mentality once he begins a drive.
“I think sometimes he puts the ball on the floor and he gets into an area that he's not being decisive and he gets himself into a situation he has to take a tough shot or nothing happens,” Adelman said. “He's got to be more aware of where the dribble takes him. Either you keep your dribble alive or you go in there with a little more authority, knowing what you want to get done. I think he's just kind of caught between.
“It could be because he's been missing shots, so he's hesitating about what to do. We're trying to find things out that we can do offensively that might help him get into situations better. It's one of the things we're trying to do, plan ahead and have things that may be better for him and Shane (Battier), too, where they both can attack a little bit more and put them in situations that are easier for them.
“He's got to learn. Everybody has talked about how he hasn't shot the ball very well at all the last two weeks. This is a transition period for him. As much as he had it going early and things were easy, now it's a little tougher, and teams are playing him different. He's got to figure out a way to be effective. I told him, ‘Don't worry about making shots; worry about affecting the game in other ways. Be a facilitator, be a rebounder and affect the game that way, and then the scoring will come.' ”
There have been signs of that, too, in recent games. Ariza had nine rebounds and seven assists against Dallas, 11 rebounds and a career-high eight assists against New Jersey.
But nothing offers quite the feeling of a game-clinching dunk.
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