Harden & Co. proving adept at tackling rigorous schedule
Since coaches never stop worrying, the Rockets’ Mike D’Antoni did not really feel at ease when his team led the Denver Nuggets by 18 points midway through the fourth quarter Friday.
D’Antoni naturally was concerned about how the road-weary Rockets would finish what they expected to be the toughest trip of the season.
He likely was not surprised when his team saved its near-best for last, fighting fatigue more than the Nuggets to complete the trip with four victories in five games and a 13-7 record a quarter of the way into the season.
The Rockets saw the dangers of playing the Nuggets a day after their double-overtime victory over Golden States, and if they didn’t, the sunrise in Denver soon after they checked in might have offered a clear clue.
In some ways, however, the Rockets seemed to embrace that challenge, not just riding the emotion carried over from the night before but refusing to give that win back with a loss less than 24 hours later.
“We came out with great energy,” guard James Harden said. “Getting in at 5 and how much do you really sleep? The energy we came out with is how we won this game.” No back-to-back losses
That fits well with the season so far. The Rockets’ bad losses have come when things seemed to be going well, their best wins when they appeared most challenged. A year after they opened with three consecutive 20-point losses and struggled all season to respond to adversity, they have not lost consecutive games.
That might have been tested most when the Rockets were blown out in Utah on the way to the meeting with the Warriors, who had beaten them in eight consecutive regular-season games, plus eight of 10 playoff games, only to have the Rockets lead most of the way and answer when the Warriors built leads late in the fourth quarter and first overtime in a thriller with 27 ties or lead changes.
“Whenever we’ve called on anybody, they’ve responded,” D’Antoni said. “That’s where the character comes in. Guys want to win. It makes coaching fun.
“We’re never satisfied. We’ve given some away, but we’ve won some big ones. We did say going into it, if we were 10-10 we’d be ecstatic, so at 137, we have to be a little bit more ecstatic. It’s good.”
Not surprisingly, while the defense has been sporadic, the offense has been better than good. Only the Warriors average more than the Rockets’ 111 points per game as the Rockets have made 37.8 percent of the 37 3-pointers they put up per game.
On the five-game trip, they averaged 121.6 points, making 40.8 percent of their 3s. The Rockets have come to expect open looks, though now they also believe there are things to address, even about their offense.
“You got … those guys, you’re going to score,” D’Antoni said. “I can’t mess it up that bad. We’re just trying to help them as much as we can and get out of the way.
“There will be nights we’ll take a step back. We can still get it up (the court) a little quicker, we can still get in and out of pick-and-rolls quicker. We can get a lot better.” Home sweet home
Still, at this point, D’Antoni had no complaints, and after 13 road games in the first 20 after a preseason every bit as taxing with the China trip, the Rockets were ready to get home, believing there they can get better.
“Obviously, we can improve,” forward Ryan Anderson said. “Defensively, we can continue to get better. This was a great road trip for us, something we can build on, something that we obviously don’t want to rest (on) easy. We want to continue to build and get more wins, see how special this team can be, because we really do believe in each other and feel we have something really great going.
“We’ve had a really tough schedule, notably the toughest in the NBA. For us to come out of this with a real positive record says a lot. We’re excited about where the rest of the season goes, having a couple games at home where you can actually get a few hours of sleep. That would be nice.”