Beauty in the eyes of a win
Harden and Rockets paint a pretty picture
We’re in the age of analytics, and no one has been a greater communicant at this altar than Houston general manager Daryl Morey.
So no doubt he has studied deeply the expanded NBA standings and knows for a fact there is no category for artistic impression.
Therefore, while much of the hoop world recoils at the Rockets’ isolation tendencies, the results speak of success now with a smaller lineup in pursuit of the first trip to the NBA Finals since 1995.
“Inside the NBA” greets James Harden highlights with Shaquille O’Neal droning “Dribble, dribble, dribble” while Charles Barkley mocks the dribbling motion. During the All-Star Game draft, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo said he was between Kemba Walker and Trae Young. Barkley said, “What, you don’t want the dribbler?” Giannis cracked, “I want somebody that’s going to pass the ball.”
This while Harden is averaging 7.3 assists per game, ninth-best in the league.
He also leads the NBA in field goal and free throw attempts, his 651 of the latter entering Saturday’s game against the Celtics are 111 more than Antetokounmpo in second.
Harden has clapped back against Giannis and seems willing to answer anyone’s critique. When a fan in San Antonio shouted, “No one wants to see a free-throw shooting contest,” as he stepped to the line in an early December game, Harden turned to his right and shot back, “Nobody wants to see fouls either, goddammit.”
Beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder, for the Rockets have taken the criticism and continued to build.
The most important piece of construction may have been removing one of their tallest beams at the trade deadline. Center Clint Capela was shipped away, and, in the process, off-season acquisition Russell Westbrook has gotten bigger.
Folks wondered whether two ball-centric types like
Harden and Westbrook could coexist, but the going smaller has changed the floor. With Harden up top (OK, dribbling, dribbling, dribbling), Westbrook now has room to use his athleticism to better ends. Since the trade deadline, he’s gone from taking 4.2 3-pointers a game at a .234 batting average to 2.3 treys at .429 — and from 26.4 to 34 points.
Kendrick Perkins, former Celtic center-turned-ESPN oracle, is on board with the changes and the Rocket result.
“I’m buying it,” he said as he stood courtside before tipoff. “This is the first time you’ve ever seen two guys like this. To me, this is the most dynamic backcourt in NBA history in Russell Westbrook and James Harden. What they did was space the court and open up the paint, and that’s why in the year 2020 Russell Westbrook is leading in points in the paint.”
While Westbrook was actually fourth behind Antetokounmpo, Zion Williamson and Montrezl Harrell at 15.0 as he took the court here Saturday, Perk’s point is well taken.
“That’s why he’s shooting his career high (47 percent),” he added.
And Charles Barkley be damned, Perkins isn’t bothered by the game coming largely to a halt while Harden bounces the ball.
“You can’t stop it,” he said. “That’s his game. How can you stop it? That’s his skill, so that’s what he’s doing. At the end of the day, if you take a hundred dribbles, he’s still averaging 35, you know what I’m saying?”
With that, Perk let out a hearty laugh.
Certainly the Rockets’ opponents don’t find it so funny. And the Celtics were a part of them gaining confidence in their move to small-ball.
Houston’s 116-105 triumph over the C’s that started the five-game win streak it brought into the Garden supported the new philosophy.
“It felt like, ‘You know, we can make this work,'” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni told the Houston Chronicle. “Then having everybody buying in… not to say they wouldn’t have anyway even if we would have lost, but I think that propelled us to a good place, and we’ve been in a good place ever since. I think you could say, ‘Yeah, we do know it’s one of 82, and so what?’ But they can inspire us, or they can prepare you for something better. It happened to be at the All-Star break. It happened to be against one of the better teams in the league. It just felt good.”
It’s fair to say Brad Stevens, his confidence in his own club notwithstanding, wasn’t feeling too well about having to deal with the Rockets again.
Where some see an aesthetically-challenged product, Stevens only sees something he has to find a way to defend.
“I mean, I think they’re one of the best teams in the NBA,” the coach said. “They’ve figured out how to play to the strengths of their team on both ends of the floor. You know, they have one of the best isolation players to ever play the game. They’ve got another guy who was an MVP three years ago standing right next to him. Those guys are going to be able to break defenses down and make plays, and I think they’ve figured out what works best for them.”
The analytics in the lefthand column of the standings is speaking well enough to that.