Fairy-tale run alive and well
Buzzer-beater by Green latest magic moment on lengthy list
Forward P.J. Tucker vowed the Rockets’ 104-103 home victory over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, when the Rockets trailed by 21 in the second half, never was in doubt.
“Never, I’m telling you, never,” Tucker said Saturday during the Rockets’ practice at Toyota Center in preparation for Sunday’s game at San Antonio. “With who we’ve got, we feel like we can win every single night.”
Tucker added a final “never” for punctuation, in providing one more example why this team on an 11-game winning streak believes it’s on a fairy-tale dash to an NBA title — when even its self-described stinkers wind up smelling sweet.
“I expected a stinker would come out pretty soon,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said with a shrug Saturday. “I didn’t know which of the three games it would have been. We held it off to the end.”
The Rockets, with the NBA’s best record at 62-14, played three home games against three of the league’s worst teams in Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix, winning the first two by a combined 51 points and needing a buzzerbeating 3-pointer from Gerald Green to win the last one.
“That was a pivotal moment,” Green said. “We could have gotten down on ourselves, and we could have panicked. We didn’t. We kept fighting to the end and were able to come up with the win.”
Tougher road ahead
The schedule ratchets back up with six regularseason games remaining, and the Rockets’ next four foes — San Antonio, Washington, Portland and Oklahoma City — all are in the playoff mix and fighting for positioning.
“We can get back on track a little bit,” D’Antoni said of facing stiffer competition entering the playoffs.
The Rockets already have locked up the top spot in the Western Conference and secured home-court advantage. D’Antoni said the rest of the regular season is still about securing homecourt advantage — after the playoffs have started.
“Rest is OK, but it’s so easy to get out of rhythm,” D’Antoni said of mixing and tinkering with his roster late in the season. “And then you go into (the playoffs) soft. You’ve fought all year — 82 games — to have home-court advantage. Then you come out of the chute and lose that first (playoff) game, you don’t have home-court advantage, and you just threw away 82 games.
“We’re not going to do that. We’re going to be ready.”
With the three cupcakes devoured, D’Antoni intends to be ready by returning to the lineup that primarily pushed the Rockets to a franchise-record 62 wins, though guard Chris Paul will sit out a second consecutive game Sunday.
“He’s OK,” D’Antoni said, citing Paul’s slightly sore left leg. “We want him 100 percent, not 99 percent.”
So how did the NBA’s best team come to trail the NBA’s worst team by 21 points prior to a frenetic fourth-quarter comeback Friday? For starters, Paul and fellow guard Eric Gordon had the night off, leaving the Rockets shy of quality playmakers against the young, energized Suns.
“Strategically, we did that because we thought we could win anyway, and we did,” D’Antoni said of resting Paul and Gordon. “Now, we’ve got four hard games coming up. It doesn’t mean we’ll win them, but at least we’ll be a lot more locked in, more guys will be playing and they should be better games.” Big night for native
For his part, Green, who grew up in Houston, won’t have many more memorable games than Friday’s against Phoenix, considering it was his first start of the season for the Rockets and he couldn’t recall the last time he’d made a buzzer beater for a win on any level.
With 1.4 seconds remaining and with Rockets star James Harden drenched in defenders, Trevor Ariza inbounded to an open Green in the far right corner. Green immediately launched the 3pointer, held his right arm high and smoothly fell to the floor as the ball settled through the net.
“My dad said he called it,” Green said, in happily mentioning a couple of times his parents were on hand for the game. “He said, ‘I think Gerald might get the shot. If he does, they’ll win because two guys will be on Harden.’”
They were, and Green played a big role in continuing the Rockets’ third double-digit winning streak of the season — all part of a fairy-tale dash into the postseason.