Rockets' Landry learning tough lessons about development

Despite his improved play, Carl Landry knows he must handle double-teams better.

Talk about your growing pains.

In the past 10 months, Carl Landry has been shot in the leg and had five teeth knocked out or broken in a collision with Dirk Nowitzki.

So why should a little bit of extra attention from NBA defenses bother him?

It's just part of the developmental process.

"Teams are playing him different," Houston Rockets coach Rick Adelman said of his third-year forward. "They're coming in and they're surrounding him. He's got to understand that."

Through the first two months of the season, Landry ran and romped like a young colt that had been let out of the stable. Without the injured Yao Ming or the rehabbing Tracy McGrady in the lineup, there were plenty of opportunities for Landry to make his mark on games, plenty of baskets to score.

So he did.

As the Rockets bolted out to a 20-13 start, establishing themselves as surprising playoff contenders in the Western Conference, Landry was one of the primary reasons, staking an early claim for the Sixth Man of the Year award. With just four 20-point games in his first two NBA seasons, the 6-foot-9 Landry topped 20 points 14 times in those first 33 games, including a career-high 31 points at Phoenix.

Since then, Landry's production has dipped -- one 20-point game -- and the Rockets have perhaps not-so-coincidentally gone 3-5 since the turn of a new year.

"I've been struggling, but still trying to be positive and have a good outlook about everything," Landry said. "Everybody has slumps. I'll just figure that I'll work my way out of this one. Of course, I'm starting to get double-teamed. That's something that I haven't seen since college and I've just got to adjust."

It was going to happen as long as Landry kept playing furiously close to the hoop with an assortment of nifty spin movesand a highlight reel full of put-back slam dunks. Landry's situation was much like that of a rookie pitcher in the big leagues who piles up strikeouts and shutout innings his first time through everyone's batting order.

"As a young player you have the unique advantage that no one really knows your game," said Rockets veteran teammate Shane Battier. "I tell that to rookies coming into the league. Opposing teams think they have an idea of what you're about, but it's not until about the third, fourth, fifth time you see somebody you think, 'OK, I've got this guy pegged. I know how to play him.'

"That's what Carl is facing now. First of all, Carl is really, really, really good. He's really talented. He's unique where he's so explosive and such a great finisher at the rim. But teams are beginning to understand who Carl is and making up game plans and defenses to account for him. Individual players are, too. The league adjusts. That's the challenge."

The trick is to adapt to the challenges.

The first big one came last March when Landry was the victim of a random street crime, shot in the leg in downtown Houston. He sat out several weeks of the season and then was right back in the lineup. The second came in Dallas on Dec. 18 when Nowitzki drove to the basket and smashed his arm into Landry's mouth, resulting in nearly six hours of dental surgery and an artificially reconstructed smile. Landy missed only one game.

"I don't think twice about those teeth or getting hit in the mouth," Landry said. "The very next game I was back in there and scored 27. My game is my game."

Now, though, his game has to be less one-dimensional. In Monday's win against Milwaukee, Landry scored just one field goal through the first three quarters, then erupted for 10 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

"When you're a rookie, it's about 'Do I belong in the NBA?' Carl does," Battier said. "The second year it's: 'Can I impact the game in a positive way?'

"Now, in the third year, it's: 'OK, can I impact the game in a positive way on a nightly basis?' That's what separates the good players from the great players. You need to do it every single night regardless of fatigue or what's happening on the court. That's what Carl needs to look at himself as.

"It's not being arrogant or cocky. He needs to think of himself that way every single night, especially with the makeup of the team we have. 'I need to be an animal every single night.' He's done a great job. He still waffles back into the 'I'm only a young player in this league.' And we can't have that. We need him to be a hungry animal, the player that we know."

Landry has been shot, but didn't let it wound his confidence. He's had teeth knocked out, but didn't let it take away from his bite.

"I want all those same things that the coaches and the staff and my teammates want from me," he said. "I want to one day be an All-Star. This is all just part of the road I have to travel to get there. Sometimes it's gonna be bumpy."

Growing pains. Carl Landry knows all about them.