Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady have helped their teams to quick starts. The division rivals meet for the first time this season on Tuesday in Houston, as McGrady and the Houston Rockets get a chance to see how their new offense matches up against the veteran San Antonio Spurs. McGrady, named the Western Conference's player of the week on Monday, is averaging a league-high 33.3 points per game during Houston's 3-1 start. San Antonio is picking up where it left off last season thanks to the consistent play of Duncan and Tony Parker, who are averaging 18.7 and 17.0 points per game, respectively.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says he's holding off judgment on how much different the Houston Rockets look under new coach Rick Adelman until later in the season.
“They're playing very well right now, very confidently,” Popovich said. “I think they're reacting well to a new situation.”
In previous coaching stops in Portland and Sacramento, Adelman preferred a fast-paced brand of basketball diametrically opposed to the slow-it-down system employed by Jeff Van Gundy, his predecessor in Houston.
"We want to push the ball, but it's not so much pushing the ball as flowing into an offense in transition,” Adelman said. “We're just trying to get by without making a lot of calls. We don't want to walk it up, if we can help it. We want to push it up.”
Adelman's offense so far, however, has featured only McGrady and Yao Ming doing most of the scoring. Yao had 21 points and 11 rebounds to join McGrady as the only Rocket in double figures on Monday.
"We have to learn how to beat a good team and get more people involved," Adelman said.
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