San Antonio’s adjustments don’t faze Harden, D’Antoni

Pau Gasol moved into the San Antonio Spurs’ starting lineup, a change only slightly less predictable than defensive whiz Kawhi Leonard defending James Harden, and the Rockets knew what that meant for the Spurs’ defense.

They could have sat in on the Spurs’ pregame meeting and not had a better idea of what was coming.

Gasol showed on screens and then retreated rapidly to defend the rim, much as the Oklahoma

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City Thunder did with Steven Adams after they, like the Spurs, were burned by the Rockets in Game 1.

The Rockets knew what was

coming, just as they said Thursday they knew what to do about it.

“Same thing, just being aggressive, that’s all,” Harden said. “I missed a couple shots at the rim. A couple shots in and out. Nothing changes for me. Just be a little more aggressive.”

That might sound like boilerplate. And it is far from all the Rockets will need to correct. But the starting point would be to have Harden attack more swiftly to finish at the rim, draw fouls or draw the defense to pass back out for 3-pointers.

On Wednesday, when he made 3 of 17 shots, he was just 1-of-7 at the rim, never drawing a foul inside the 3-point line.

Harden leads the NBA with 16.9 drives per game in the postseason. Until Wednesday, he was the league’s top scorer on drives, averaging 13.5 points, not including the points he scored on fast breaks. On Wednesday, he scored two points on drives to the basket.

Must get loose balls

But Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni was no more worried about Harden scoring than he was surprised with the Spurs’ defensive adjustment.

“I’m not concerned about James Harden,” he said. “He’s the least of my problems.

“They’ve done that before. That’s where Pau’s really good, right there.”

The coach said Harden generally got the shots in Game 2 he typically gets. Harden did not finish those shots or hit his 3-pointers. But D’Antoni said Harden has solved similar defenses.

“I think it’s normally what he gets,” D’Antoni said. “We’ve seen it all. We’ve seen people do that and he got to the rim. Again, Pau is 7-2 (listed at 7-0) and long. I don’t see it as a problem. We’ll have drive-and-kicks. We’ll finish.”

To D’Antoni, the Rockets were scoring well enough, anyway. Through three quarters, they were down five points and on pace to score 110 points. That is five less than they averaged in the regular season or had been averaging in the postseason. But against the league’s top defensive team on an off night, they were scoring well enough before the wheels came off in the fourth quarter.

The greater issue, D’Antoni said, was with the Spurs’ success on the boards and the battles for loose balls. Combined with San Antonio’s 54.5 percent shooting, the Rockets had few chances to get in transition to counter the Spurs’ size with their speed. The Rockets scored just 13 fastbreak points. In Game 1, they scored 17 in the second quarter.

“Shooting (49.2) percent for three quarters, we got a lot of good looks and I think we’ll continue to do that,” D’Antoni said. “We got to get into transition more, even on makes. We have to come up with 50/50 balls. We need to get the defensive rebound. They had nearly as many offensive rebounds as we had rebounds. That can’t happen. All that contributed to us not getting in transition. That hurts your offense. It keeps us from getting 120, 125 points and keeps us around 105 to 110 points. We have to change that up.

“I wouldn’t say effort, because everyone’s playing hard. There just wasn’t that edge, the saltiness you have to have. They got to the 50/50 balls we got to the first night. You knew they were going to bounce back and they did. We popped them in the mouth the first game. They popped us this game. It should be a nice game (Friday). Everybody should have their antennas up.”

Focus on defensive end

Harden typically adjusts to a defense, breaking it down to score or set up 3s. He did not seem comfortable beginning possessions battling Leonard, especially with Leonard having Gasol behind him to protect the rim. But the Rockets believe Harden will get his usual offense going again, placing a greater emphasis on the defense and rebounding that was lacking on the other end.

“No one can defend James,” guard Pat Beverley said. “He had open shots. They just didn’t go in. That’s how basketball goes. We understand that. We were still down five points going into the fourth quarter. None of that matters. The only thing that matters to us is our defense and getting stops. If we do that, we put ourselves in a good position to win.”