Wizards Keep Rockets Grounded

While Houston's Steve Francis showed Sunday that he is capable of playing like an All-Star, Mitch Richmond showed Francis and the Rockets how to play like a perennial All-Star.

Richmond scored 27 points and had seven assists as the Washington Wizards beat the Rockets 103-92, ruining Francis' homecoming to the Washington area.

"Whenever they needed something big, Richmond came through," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.

Richmond and Rod Strickland, who scored 15, outscored the Rockets' backcourt 42-25, while handing Houston its fifth straight road loss and 16th straight when trailing at the end of the third quarter.

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Francis, who played at Maryland, led the Rockets with 21 points and seven assists. Francis brought the crowd to its feet with a powerful dunk over Wizards center Jahidi White.

"If we were in Houston, the crowd would have reacted the same," said Francis, who last played in the MCI Center last season when he was at Maryland.

"It was a Steve Francis welcome home party," said Washington's Laron Profit, Francis' teammate at Maryland. "We got the win, which is what we wanted. He got to play in front of his family and friends, which is what he wanted."

The Wizards took the lead for good when they scored the final seven points of the first half and the first nine of the third quarter to take a 58-42 lead two minutes into the second half. The win was the Wizards' fourth in five games. The only loss was 105-89 to the Rockets Thursday night.

"We got more aggressive in the third quarter," Wizards coach Gar Heard said. "We din't let them do what they wanted."

Washington was outscored 29-17 in the fourth quarter Thursday night, but Sunday the Wizards pushed the lead to as much as 22 in the final quarter, with the help of 13 second-half points by White.

Walt Williams, who also played at Maryland, tried to spark a Houston comeback with 20 points off the bench.

Notes

This was the 600th game of Tomjanovich's coaching career.

Richmond moved past Bob McAdoo into 36th place on the career scoring list with a first quarter lay-up.

Maryland alumni were all over the MCI Center Francis, Williams and Massenberg for the Rockets combined for 41 points. Profit had two points for the Wizards.

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