Rockets forward Tracy McGrady will miss Friday's game against the Golden State Warriors after flying to North Carolina late Thursday after learning of the death of his fianc?e's mother.

The Rockets did not know whether he would join the team in time to play against the Magic in Orlando on Sunday.

The Rockets are 0-13 without McGrady and have lost three other games that he was unable to complete.

"We know how we have to play to win," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We expect to win. We have great confidence if we play well, we will win."

NBATV is reporting that the Miami Heat have dealt Gerald Fitch to Houston for Derek Anderson.

Miami used their trade exception in order to complete this deal.

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According to the Houston Chroncile Derek Anderson is attracting some interest, with up to five teams considering acquiring the shooting guard.

The Rockets have tried to complete a deal to move Anderson to the Heat, Cavaliers, Lakers, Nuggets or Magic.

However, each team had other, greater priorities, making a deal with the Rockets unlikely until closer to today's 3 p.m. deadline.

"Everyone's aggressive right now to try to better their team," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "I don't think there's one team that's not aggressively looking to better their team. Some general managers will tell you that. Usually the losing ones, like us ... you guys would think we were nuts if we said, 'You know what, we really like how it's going this year. This is good stuff right here, so we're going to stand pat and feel good.'

"The other ones are going to try to con you. They're trying to get better, too. Detroit is, I'm sure, going to try to find a backup point. Either you're going to try to get better or you're trying to dump contracts so you can get better.

"Either way, you're trying to do something. But every article is the same: We don't expect anything to happen. If it doesn't, 'It's hey I told you.' If it does, it came up at the last second."

Houston seems frustrated by Tracy McGrady's indifference and lack of toughness.

McGrady said during the all-star break that he's considered asking the Rockets for a leave of absence to deal with an undisclosed personal problem.

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was checking his e-mails while talking on the phone with general manager Carroll Dawson on Sunday when one message caught his eye.

Van Gundy received a blurb from a New York Post column that said he and Dawson were no longer on speaking terms.

The irony of the timing of this news aside, Van Gundy on Monday sought to end any doubt.

"The funny thing was at the time somebody e-mailed it to me, I was talking to Carroll," Van Gundy said. "I just found it funny. I wasn't going to bring it up.

"Anonymous (information) like that is the old divide and conquer. I don't respond to those, but this time I thought I should clear it up. Things like this try to make you defend things that don't need defending. It's like (the question), 'Do you still beat your wife.' "

While saying he and Dawson speak "not every day but almost all the time," Van Gundy also disputed the insinuation that he was unhappy with the personnel Dawson provided. He said it is inaccurate to say that Dawson and he did not make personnel decisions together.

"He doesn't tell me about every phone call, nor do I want him to," Van Gundy said. "I don't run every coaching decision by him. But we make every major decision together. I didn't wake up one morning and Tracy McGrady was here. I don't think that happens anywhere.

"Do I have enough say? Absolutely."

A push from the Detroit Pistons, an MVP performance by LeBron James and a putback by Dwyane Wade decided an NBA All-Star game that went down to the final seconds.

Trailing by 21 points, the East rallied for a 122-120 victory Sunday night behind King James and the Pistons' Fab Four.

With the score tied, Allen Iverson was off-target on a jumper, but Wade darted into the lane for the rebound and the go-ahead basket with 16 seconds left.

Still, the East didn't wrap it up until hometown hero Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets missed a jumper with the clock ticking down. Kobe Bryant then had the ball slip out of his hands for a turnover, and it hardly mattered that Vince Carter missed a breakaway dunk on the other end just before the buzzer.

McGrady led all players with 36 points. The 21-year-old James, in his second midseason showcase, scored 29 and became the youngest All-Star MVP.

"It was more impressive that we came from, at one point, 21 points down and willed ourselves to a win," James said.

Sources tell Peter Vecsey that Jeff Van Gundy and Carroll Dawson are no longer on speaking terms. A reenactment of the ruthless friction that transpired in New York between Van Gundy and Ernie Grunfeld, which led to the firing of the Knicks team president.

Vecsey is informed that Van Gundy is so angry with the personnel Carroll has provided that he recently told free-agent pickup Stromile Swift, "Would you please ask to be traded."

This much is true: Steve Francis would love to be back in Houston. Through channels, he has let that be known. Despite comments he has made since he was sent to Orlando in the Tracy McGrady deal, Francis' biggest issue about Jeff Van Gundy is that Van Gundy was the coach who traded him.

Van Gundy, to the doubts of roughly 300 media members over on Westheimer, would be happy to coach Francis again. He would probably want to wring his neck at times, but Van Gundy genuinely liked the guy and believes Francis played well and hard for him.

That right there is more than enough to germinate a trade rumor, but this one had been picking up steam already.

The Nuggets and Knicks, the teams most interested in making deals by Thursday's deadline, have been mentioned most as possible landing spots for Francis, but there is always an addendum that tacks on Houston.

It's not going to happen. It can't. It won't.

If you put Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady off limits ? and they are ? and gave Orlando its choice of everyone and anyone on the Rockets' roster to add up to Francis' $14 million-plus, you cannot come up with a deal the Magic would take.

They want to move Francis, but they can find younger options than David Wesley and Juwan Howard, shorter contracts than Rafer Alston's and Stromile Swift's, and better options than any the Rockets could come up with.

All-Star weekend has come to Houston during one of the worst times of Tracy McGrady's life.

The 26-year-old Rockets star, who'll play in his sixth All-Star game Sunday, won't divulge what's bothering him, but said his personal crisis is as trying as anything he's ever faced.

"I'm human, I'm going through some things in my life, things I've got to deal with, and I'm just trying to handle it the best way I can," McGrady said. "It's wearing and tearing at me. This weight has gotten heavy for me and it's taking a toll."

Even Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy is concerned, making a recent unscheduled visit to McGrady's house to talk to him about his issues. McGrady told Van Gundy he was considering taking some games off and disappearing from public life.

"I told my coach that's how I felt -- that I really felt like leaving and not tell people where I was going, just getting away for a few days and just clearing my mind," McGrady said. "I need peace of mind right now. It's all just piled up on me and broken me down."

McGrady has missed 13 games this season with back spasms and left another game in late December to see his fiancee, Clerenda Harris, give birth to their second child, a son.

But McGrady wouldn't say whether the issues were health-related or who they involve.

"I've dealt with family members passing away, best friends getting killed," McGrady said. "This is a lot worse than that because it's a combination of things in different areas.

"I'm in a tough stage of my life right now."

The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets announced today that they have acquired guard Moochie Norris and cash considerations from Houston in exchange for center Maciej Lampe.

?The acquisition of Moochie gives us a solid veteran at the third point guard spot,? said Hornets General Manager Jeff Bower.  ?With the recent injuries to Chris Paul and Speedy Claxton, we felt it was important to bring in a player who had experience at running a team as extra insurance.?

Norris had averaged 2.2 points and 1.0 assists in 29 games with the Rockets this season prior to the trade.  The eight-year veteran has averaged 5.2 points and 2.8 assists in 429 career games, including stints with the Grizzlies, Sonics, Knicks and Rockets.  His best NBA season came in 2001-02 when he averaged 8.1 points and 4.9 assists in 82 games with Houston.