Timely positioning familiar for Covington

For all it took for Rockets forward Robert Covington to get his hand on the tip that sent the Rockets to overtime and a win against the Mavericks on Friday, some of the most important work began before James Harden attempted his shot. As Covington and P.J.

Tucker had discussed before Harden’s free throw with 3.9 seconds remaining in regulation, Tucker put a body on Kristaps

Porzingis, driving him under the rim. Covington went around Maxi Kleber on the baseline, taking himself out of position to get the rebound unless it came out in the space Porzingis had been forced to vacate.

“I’ve been practicing that for a while,” Covington said. “Different teams I’ve been on, we kind of had a situation where it comes down to it. P.J. was on the single side (with one opposing rebounder). I was on the double side. The man that’s on the single side, he goes high. The man on the double side, he goes on the low side. ‘Tuck’ had Porzingis occupied. Kleber stayed on his side, thinking it would come off that way.”

Harden said he did not intentionally miss, but he knew Tucker and Covington had discussed a plan to get the rebound if he did.

“When you’ve got to miss, it’s always good to try to come up with a scheme,” Tucker said. “We used to do it in college all the time. He (Covington) goes left to right. I go right to left. He went under. I went on top. I brought Porzingis with me. It was perfect. It worked out good.”

The tip to force overtime was Covington’s second in his career. While with the 76ers, he followed a Gerald Henderson miss at the buzzer to force overtime in Portland in March 2017. Similarly, teammate Dario

Saric occupied an opposing big man, giving Covington space to get to the ball.

“It’s a familiar situation for me,” Covington said. “I knew exactly what to do. I’ve been rehearsing it so many times, and P.J. was listening to me and he executed.”

Harden adjusts to double-teams

It did not take long for the Rockets to see the expected double-teams on

James Harden. While he was putting up 23 firstquarter points — moving past Calvin Murphy to second on the Rockets’ all-time scoring list — the Mavericks went to the predictable traps that Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni has said he often welcomes.

Even though Harden scored 49 points, he generally gave up the ball early in possessions to allow teammates to go four-onthree, running pick-androll or quickly setting up

Russell Westbrook on the perimeter.

“Sometimes they run guys at him. Sometimes he likes them to come and get Russell in the middle,” D’Antoni said. “Those are the discussions we have during the game, and I rely on his instincts, where he wants the guy. I thought we attacked it real well.

“That’s one of the reads James makes in the first quarter. Then, they started to double. He only takes … two shots in the whole second quarter and we were attacking. I thought he did a great job of not forcing the issue, getting Russ the ball to get him to the rim or get a wide-open 3. I don’t think double teams hurt James. He still got almost 50 points. And it doesn’t hurt our execution and how we score.

Westbrook scored 17 points on drives Friday as the Rockets, averaging 47.1 points in the paint this season, scored 64 inside. The Bucks, however, allow the fewest points in the paint paint in the NBA, just 38.8 per game with Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo controlling the lane.

Asked how to score if the Bucks get the ball out of Harden’s hands and defend the paint in Sunday’s game, D’Antoni said, “We shoot a lot of 3s. It’s got to be open.

“Either they cover the paint, or we got everybody outside so we got the guy driving; somebody is going to be open on the perimeter. If that’s what they want to give us, maybe we shoot 60 3s (Sunday). We’re going to take what they give us. I do believe if we execute right, they’re going to give us layups or 3s. They can figure out which one they want to take away.”

D’Antoni explains taking off mask

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni and his staff are among the few wearing masks during games, in a large part to send a message about the importance of wearing them. D’Antoni briefly removed it to argue with an official Friday and said he might again in similar circumstances.

“It’s going to happen some because I want to be sure they can definitely hear what I’m saying,” D’Antoni said. “It will happen in the heat of competition. I’ll try to keep it on as much as I can.”

The NBA requires only the coaches who are not in the front row to wear masks.