Always overlooked, Houston coach Adelman just continues to win

The leading candidate for Coach of the Year going into the final five weeks of the regular season, Adelman has never won the award.

"My dad has always been underrated as a coach, but I don't think he cares," says R.J. Adelman, Rick's oldest son and the junior member of the Houston coaching staff. "Part of that may be because he has coached in small markets, and part of it is his personality. He has always deflected the praise and takes on the criticisms. He protects his players and doesn't care about attention. He just does his job."

Adelman has been no stranger to streaks during his NBA coaching career. The Blazers won 16 in a row late in the 1990-91 season and started that season 11-0 and 19-1. His 2001-02 Sacramento team ran off streaks of 12 and 11 victories.

But Houston's current streak is special, and not just because it's longer than the others.

"When you win like this and you see the players respond the way they've responded, it's a lot of fun," Adelman says. "More than anything, it's been so satisfying to see these guys and the way they've embraced (the streak). They've done a great job of being proud of it but not getting caught up in it.

"You need to keep building on it and take advantage of the momentum, because what counts in the end is what you do in the playoffs. You don't look backward at it; you look forward."

Adelman bristles at the suggestion that the streak is tainted by a soft schedule. The Rockets have had only six road games during the streak.

"If it's so easy," he says, "why have only two teams in history been able to match it?"

It's not easy, especially when a team loses All-Star swing man Tracy McGrady to a leg injury for 11 games in December and January and now is without the 7-foot-6 Yao for the final two months of the season. Adelman has adjusted from a post-up offense to one utilizing McGrady's talents on the pick-and-roll.

When Yao was lost, "like everybody, I thought it was going to be really difficult for us to continue to win," Adelman admits. "I thought we could win, but against the better teams ... we don't really have a true low-post player now.

"It was going to take a change of the way we played. Our guys have continued to play at a high level. People have stepped in and taken up the slack."

McGrady has stepped up his game since Yao left the lineup, averaging 24.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists compared to 20.8, 4.8 and 6.2 for the season. Rookie forwards Luis Scola of Argentina and Carl Landry, a second-round draft pick out of Purdue, have made major contributions along with point guard Rafer Alston and defensive specialist Shane Battier.

"We've had to adapt," R.J. Adelman says. "The players are good defensively and are very attentive in terms of following a game plan. It's fun in that regard.

"Offensively, my dad has had to experiment with a lot of things to find out what works. For this group right now, it's rolling."

After being fired by Sacramento following the 2005-06 season, Adelman sat out last year, living at his Portland home while watching his children, David and Kathy, coach high school ball. It didn't take long for him to get the itch to return to coaching, and when the Rockets beckoned, it was a good fit.

Adelman has kept his players on an even emotional keel through the current streak.

"You have to deal with every situation you're faced with," he says. "With my experience through all these years, I'm not going to panic about it. I've had a lot of teams that have lost players and still won. If you don't approach it that way as a coach, the players won't believe.

"I really believed we could still win. We have players who have gotten better through the year. You can't get too caught up with yourself when you win or too down when you lose. Just stay with it. We're winning, and we have to enjoy it, but also understand the hardest thing to do is continue at a high level. This team has learned how to win, but I know we're going to have some bumps in the road."

Coach of the Year? Hall of Fame? What Adelman wants now is the first championship ring of his NBA coaching career.

"I don't see any reason why we can't (win a title), but it's going to be hard," he says. "We're going without one of our best players. Our schedule gets more difficult. This time of the year in the Western Conference, it's like starting the playoffs with a month left. Lose three or four games in a row and you can drop (in the West standings) in a hurry.

"We have to make the playoffs and get out of the first round first. But when we were 13-15 (in mid-December), nobody would have said we'd be where we are at this point in the season."