Rockets right ship in rout of Bulls
13-point deficit becomes coach’s 500th career win
CHICAGO — The knockout punches would come as they usually do when the Rockets get on a roll.
The Rockets poured in 3-pointers. In a 9½-minute stretch to end the first half and start the second, the Rockets outscored the Chicago Bulls 33-2.
The lead would swell to 31 points before the Rockets cruised to a 115-94 romp Friday night, ending a two-game losing streak by giving Mike D’Antoni the 500th win of his coaching career and a celebratory locker room bath.
Before the Rockets went to their Mad Bomber routine, however, they did something more significant.
It might say something about their high-revving offense that they were not impressed with getting 15 3-pointers — 13 before the
end of the third quarter — for the 34th time this season, seven more than the previous NBA record. But more important than happily firing away from deep again, the Rockets took the Bulls’ best punch and toughened up the way they have not consistently in recent weeks.
“The first quarter was bad — low energy,” D’Antoni said. “We found the way and will, and we did it. We play so much better offensively when we really have the energy and really play defensively. We get in transition. Threes start to fall. We’re not taking the ball out every time.
“They know that. Every once in a while … we lose our concentration. Thank goodness we got it back in the second and third quarters and put them away.”
The Rockets had emphasized hitting the boards against the Bulls yet gave up an offensive rebound and a secondchance 3-pointer in the first minute. The Bulls, the NBA leaders in secondchance scoring, had 11 points off offensive rebounds in the first quarter to lead by as many as 13 points.
“In the first quarter, we gave up too many easy — everything,” guard James Harden said. “The second quarter and third quarter, we just locked in, started talking and doing the right things and then rebounded. I think they’re the No. 1 offensive rebounding team. We gang-rebounded and got out in transition and did our thing.”
Slapped with that wake-up call, the Rockets allowed two secondchance points the rest of the game. After the Bulls made 60.9 percent of their shots in the first quarter, they hit 24.5 percent in the second and third quarters, scoring fewer points (30) than they did in the first 12 minutes (33).
“That was a key for us, to keep them off the glass,” said forward Ryan Anderson, who came back after missing a game with back spasms to score 21 points in 27 minutes. “We wanted to have a big emphasis on defense and running the ball. That’s when we’re at our best, when we get stops and run. Once we started making some shots, you can tell it was deflating for them.”
Before the Rockets began hitting waves of 3s or the Bulls seemed to lose interest, there was one more concern.
Harden turned his right ankle on a drive in the closing seconds of the first quarter. He stayed down for several minutes and came up limping. But he said he never had any doubts he would be all right, returned in his normal spot in the rotation and after scoring four first-quarter points, finished with 19 to go with 13 assists.
“I do ankle rehab every single day,” Harden said. “Ankle’s pretty strong, for the most part.”
Once the Rockets began to roll, they had little trouble blowing the game open. They dropped in four 3-pointers in the first 3½ minutes of the second half, more than the Bulls had made in the game. By the fourth quarter, the Rockets seemed most interested in celebrating D’Antoni’s milestone. They already had put the Bulls safely away, so when D’Antoni reached the locker room, Pat Beverley drenched him with water.
“We’re happy for him,” Beverley said. “Five hundred is a big win. We all watched him coming up. To play for him is an honor. I love playing for him.”
D’Antoni was happy to have a one-game win streak again but happier about how the Rockets won it.
“I’ve been around a long time,” D’Antoni said. “I’ve had some good teams. This is one of my best.”