Jeff wins Van Gundy game

HOUSTON — They'd already competed long and hard at pingpong, Chutes and Ladders and checkers. After all those years, Jeff and Stan Van Gundy finally faced off as basketball coaches.

In just the second time in NBA history that brothers coached against each other, Jeff's Houston Rockets sent Stan's Miami Heat 90-70 on Tuesday night.

Not only did Jeff beat his brother, the Rockets handed the Heat its second worst loss in a string of seven straight losses to open the season. Miami is the only winless team in the NBA.

The Van Gundys joined Herb and Larry Brown as the only brothers to coach against each other in the NBA.

The Rockets tried to concentrate on the game.

"I couldn't tell from anything they were doing," Steve Francis said. "It wasn't about Jeff or Stan. It was about Houston versus Miami and I respect that."

The family reunion started Monday night when the Heat arrived in Houston and Stan went to Jeff's home for dinner.

"His wife, Kim, told me to make sure I use the words 'homemade' and gourmet' and it was," Stan said. "It was unbelievable — steak, potato, salad — it was wonderful. She said to say she cooks like that every night."

The brother-brother intrigue was more entertaining than the game.

Houston missed its first six shots and didn't get a basket until 6:33 remained in the first quarter as the Heat took an 11-5 lead.

The Rockets recovered to lead 43-36 at halftime and took command in the third quarter. Houston was led by Mobley, who scored a season-high 30 points.

Yao had a career-high seven blocked shots. He had 16 points and eight rebounds. Eddie Jones led the Heat with 21 points.

The Van Gundys rarely looked at each other during the game. Stan, wearing a tan jacket, was more animated than his brother, dressed in a dark suit.

When it was over, they walked off at opposite ends of the court. Jeff had his head down and Stan looked up real quickly, saw that his brother was headed off, and left with his team. The last head-to-head meeting between the brothers was in 1984 when Jeff was a senior at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., and Stan was the coach at Castleton in Vermont. It was the championship game of a holiday tournament and Nazareth won, with Jeff earning the MVP award.

CELTICS 78, PACERS 76: At Indianapolis, Vin Baker hit a fallaway jumper in the lane with 20 seconds left for the Celtics. Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal missed a short jumper with time winding down and Boston's Eric Williams corralled the loose ball to seal the victory. Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds, and Baker had 12 points and four rebounds. O'Neal had 25 points and 11 rebounds for Indiana, which lost for the first time in six games to drop to 6-2.