Silas: ‘Better late than never’
Winning streak shows signs of improvement as the season’s growing pains start to pay off
The goal all along was to improve. Development would be their purpose, the priority for the season. Success would be measured not on the scoreboards or in the standings but on how much the Rockets grew.
Yet, as teammates drenched and then mauled Jabari Smith Jr. in the locker room on Friday, his game-winning 3-pointer having delivered a thirdconsecutive win, the Rockets had indeed learned some lessons. They found that winning can be its own reward, especially if it comes because of the progress the Rockets had long sought.
“We know we’re not playing to get in the playoffs or anything like that, but … growth is the biggest we’re trying to end the season with,” guard Jalen Green said. “We’re growing in the right direction.”
The signs of improvement, especially individually, had been there before there was proof. But they were obscured by the losing streaks, by the maddening, inexplicable defeats.
The Rockets probably would not have been any better had they not given away wins in the final three-tenths of a second or had collapsed late in close games before the winning streak, even if their record was closer to the play-in than the lottery hopefuls. But there are scoreboards and standings. The Rockets lacked the validation that has come with narrow wins against Celtics, Lakers and Pelicans, the sort of wins that had so often gotten away.
“We’ve had a lot of down moments this year,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “We’ve been fighting through them. We’re starting to see, once we fight through them, we can play and play well.”
The execution on a series of plays down the stretch on Friday offered a clear sign of growth, even during the first four games of the homestand. But nothing could be more conspicuous as signs of improvement than winning with Smith draining the game-winning 3 and Alperen Sengun stepping up defensively.
“Better late than never,” Silas said with a laugh. “But it is good to see the efup fort on the defensive end, and Jabari, what a shot. What a shot. Happy for him. Happy for the group. They were really excited in the locker room after the game. Really excited.”
Last second, game-winning jumpers will bring celebrations but there was an understanding that the growing pains have benefited them.
It is not the first time, even this season. The Rockets had similarly thought they had turned a corner in December, as former Rockets guard Eric Gordon put it at the time, weeks before he grumbled weeks later that there had been “no improvement.” After the Rockets win was complete on Friday, Gordon tweeted “That’s growth !!!!! ”
The strides made will be tested with Sunday’s rematch against the Pelicans, a game in a back-toback against the Warriors on Monday and a particularly brutal five-game road trip that follows.
The results of the season have not and cannot be undone. The Rockets are likely to remain among the league’s bottom three teams, with the best chances at the top picks of the draft. But more than their mood has improved.
“The maturity we showed when they were 16, the fight from our bench, the energy in our huddles, there was no bickering or arguing,” Smith said. “We were all together. We’re all coming together. We’re all figuring it out. I definitely feel like we’re improving. Earlier in the season, we don’t come back and win that game. We’re taking steps in the right direction.”
The homestand had begun with the Rockets breaking down in the closing minutes against the Bulls, with execution so disastrous it nearly stopped traffic for rubberneckers to get an extra look. Down the stretch on Friday, they ran four consecutive out-of-bounds or after-timeout plays perfectly.
“What I tried to preach is, the mistakes we made early in the season, let’s not make them again,” K.J. Martin said. “After AllStar break, we all talked, and said, ‘Let’s make these the best batch of games we played all season.’ Just knowing the mistakes we made prior to these past couple games, going out there and trying to execute.
“If execute and run a good play and get a good shot and miss it, oh well. We did what we were supposed to do. But us going out there and messing up the plays and not getting up a good shot, those kind of linger.”
There were big shots: Kevin Porter Jr.’s pull-up 3 off a steal, a Green corner jumper with a toe on the line, and Smith’s final 3 to win the game. But the execution of plays was far better than in the loss to the Bulls or even Wednesday’s win against the Lakers, the first thing Silas addressed at Friday’s pregame walkthrough.
“Early on, we were getting our reps and stuff like that, but we weren’t really learning from our mistakes,” Porter said. “As of late, you see it. After each game, we’ve been in multiple moments that we’ve been in the game prior, and we learned from them. In the last week, we’ve been able to learn and adjust. We’ve been focused and locked in.”
That might have started with a team meeting after the All-Star break that several players cited on Saturday. The Rockets went into the break after a blowout loss so bad that Jae’Sean Tate called it “a bloodbath.” They came out of the break with losses to the Warriors and Trail Blazers, but greater determination.
“It was one of the keys,” Tate said. “Adding Frank (Kaminsky) here and having another vet, his whole message in that meeting was “Let’s try to play our best basketball by the end of the year.’
“From All-Star weekend to now, the growth and the togetherness and the way we’ve been finishing games is on the right track with our goal. All these teams that are trying to get in the playoffs, you know you come in here or you play the Rockets, you know you got to come to play.”
Silas said the meeting “had a part” in the improved play since.
“We were just talking about what do we want these last 24 games to look like,” he said. “Who do we want to be in these last 24 games. I wanted to give them something to reach for. I think it has something to do with it, but it has more to do with our guys. I wanted to hear what they wanted out of these last 24. They came up with some good stuff as far as playing together, playing our best basketball towards the end of the season, better than we had, and we’re doing it.”
The Rockets lost the first four games out of the break, pushing the losing streak to 11 games. But they believed the increased determination allowed them to learn from losses as they had not before, citing the wins this week as proof. They are 5-3 since the losing streak.
There were signs of improvement before a few home wins. They are easier to see — and enjoy — with the scoreboard chiming in.
“It’s always easier to sleep at night when you have a win,” Tate said. “This is a good thing for us to build off.
“We’ve been in those positions where it was down to the wire earlier this season. Our execution and our attention to detail, we fell short in those games. You see the past few games it came down to the wire and we locked in and did the things we needed to do to get the win. Right there, that’s growth. And we’re going to continue to grow.”