Howard & Co. can silence critics’ yapping
This scene has played out millions of times over the years, on playgrounds all over the world.
“Shut up,” some testy juvenile says authoritatively.
To which the target of the command replies, “Make me.”
Ah, the moment of truth. When we determine if what precipitated the original directive was bothersome or if the wannabe tough guy was just fronting.
For our purposes in this piece, Dwight Howard is the testy juvenile.
He was angered or irritated by the ridiculous debate over whether the mild-to-nonexistent celebration on the end of the Rockets’ bench following James Harden’s electrifying game-winning jumper Thursday in Game 3.
Much ado about little
The shot gave the Rockets a one-point lead with less than three seconds remaining and eventually a 97-96 victory over Golden State that closed the Warriors’ lead in the first-round series to 2-1.
As the crowd at Toyota Center went nuts, Howard and Corey Brewer all but yawned. There was basketball to be played and the controversy is silly, but it was an odd look.
Howard said: “For all those people saying we weren’t happy and excited that James hit the shot, shut up.”
“All those people” — from national television commentators on every darn show ESPN airs, to random Joes and Joans on social media — have evil grins on their faces.
One reason they talk so much, so derisively, about Howard and the Rockets, is they are comfortable in their belief Howard and the Rockets aren’t going to make them shut up.
For the last two decades or so — from the Big (Old) Three, to Franchise and Cat, to T-Mac and Yao, to The Beard and Superman — the Rockets have been fronting as title contenders
Finally, last year they made a run to the Western Conference finals, where they lost 4-1 to the Warriors. But they returned this season as if on a mission to show last year was a fluke.
So, of course, naysayers again are making noise.
Can the Rockets shut them up?
We’ll see Sunday afternoon when the teams meet in Game 4 at Toyota Center.
Team Complain
The Rockets — from management to stadium personnel — are a whiny bunch. Whether it’s complaining that Howard doesn’t get the respect from officials that a superstar big man should. (They are a little right and a lotta wrong.)
Or that there is an organized plot to point out Harden’s defensive defi- ciencies. (Again, a little right and a lotta wrong.)
Or the organization’s argumentum ad nauseam that former Rocket and now TNT analyst Charles Barkley has an ax to grind.
The Rockets tend to fret over one meaningless issue after another. CEO Tad Brown and general manager Daryl Morey taking to Twitter to make points is pure comedy.
The Rockets need to be more concerned about their play, which improved significantly in Game 3, than what everybody has to say about them.
The “fake hustle” to which Barkley referred is a real thing. The Rockets have been faking it for much of the season.
Thursday, they actually showed up.
Interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff credited his squad with making “scrap plays” that it didn’t in the first two games.
Yeah, scrappy isn’t a word used to describe the Rockets this season.
But remove the “s” and you get an extra 100,000 Google search hits on that and Rockets.
Blue-collar quality
Relative scrappiness is one of the many things that separates these two teams. As talented as the Warriors are, particularly offensively, they get down and dirty on loose balls and rebounds as if they were an underwhelming team trying to make an impression.
Maybe that comes from having so many players who have been overlooked and doubted.
Thursday, the Rockets played like a team bent on quieting doubters.
Defensively, they were on the attack and the Warriors were out of sorts, finishing with just 96 points.
Golden State was held under 100 points only seven times this season. It lost five of those games.
Remember, this is a team that lost only nine regular-season games.
I wouldn’t expect the Warriors to have another poor offensive game.
Klay Thompson isn’t likely to have a repeat 0-for-7 game on 3-pointers. Then again, he was 0-for-7 against the Rockets with Trevor Ariza chasing him in a February contest.
Uncharacteristic
Draymond Green probably won’t commit seven turnovers again. He had more than that only once this season.
And Stephen Curry almost surely will score more points than he did in Games 2 and 3, when he didn’t play.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said Curry likely would be on a minutes restriction, which might not mean much, considering he ripped the Rockets for 24 points in the series opener despite playing 20 minutes.
If the Rockets can shut them down again, and Harden dominates — with or without his teammates celebrating like mad — they’ll shut up the critics.
Otherwise, they’re just testy juveniles.