Competitive spirit shows on first day

The Rockets’ long first practice of the season could have been over.

The work that had been planned for the day was complete. The first two-aday session, scheduled for Wednesday, loomed.

But the veterans would not let it end. They trailed a group of Bobby Brown, Tarik Black and players fighting for roster spots. They were going to keep playing until they won.

NBA games won’t go quite that way. The scoreboard clock is not as receptive to lobbying efforts as Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni. But with Chris Paul seeming as serious as a surgeon, the Rockets got a taste of the off-the-charts competitiveness that has long been his reputation and practice rolled on until the starters on the floor walked off with a win Tuesday.

“They’re competitive,” D’Antoni said. “I kind of wanted to cut it short because it was going a little long. They wouldn’t let me cut it short because they were behind, the white team, the veterans. They wouldn’t let me do it, and they beat them in the end. That’s more important than anything we can do, that competitive spirit. They do have that.”

With time running out, Paul and center Clint Capela ran a pick-and-roll, as

they had throughout much of the long practice. Capela was fouled and made the game-winning free throws.

“I had to prove to everybody that now, I’m back. I’m making these,” Capela said. “That was a good foul. That was a good gamewinner.

But the day really was not about the score. D’Antoni said as with all training camps it was the first step in establishing the philosophies he wants to carry throughout the season, from the sorts of shots the Rockets will seek and the defensive rotations they will try to use to the attitude he hopes will last all season.

“Today was more or less an overall philosophy on how we want to do it on offense and how we want to get on defense,” D’Antoni said. “Now, every day forward, we’ll break down certain segments of it and try to get better.”

Beyond those details — he did “get on” some younger players about passing up open 3s — he wanted to instill selflessness and determination.

It’s back to basics

“What we tried to tell them in the film room today was, ‘Everything we’re talking about, we can control,’ ” D’Antoni said. “That’s being alert, communication, how you treat your teammates. That, if you can control it, you have to do that. We might not be able to control if a shot goes in or out, a ball is tipped off somebody or a bad call. But we can control the things these guys want to do if we’re serious about winning a championship.

“Leadership comes from different people. We have a lot of vets that want to win, that are here just for that purpose.”

First days are always about basics; when to switch defensively, shots to take. It did not hurt that the training camp began with Paul demonstrating his well-known determination the Rockets viewed as nearly as valuable as his playmaking.

“That’s me,” he said. “I play to win. I don’t care if it’s Connect4 (or) it’s Jenga. No matter what it is, we play to win. We have a lot of guys on our team with a lot of grit. We build on days like this.

“One of the things we talked about today was building our principles. One of the biggest things we talked about was competing. We won. Day one. That’s good competition right there.”

The Rockets expected that much, not just from the workouts that led into training camp but from years going against one another as NBA veterans. They could have a second unit with four newcomers (depending on when Nene or Black man the center spot). But they were not strangers meeting on the first day.

Familiarity an asset

“We all knew that before we walked in the gym,” said Black, who heads into his fourth season and second stint with the Rockets. “We have a veteran team. We all played against each other. We know each other. Everybody looking at the roster even before training camp, early this summer once the roster was full, we knew, ‘Oh yeah, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be great practices, great training camp.’ Some of our hardest games are going to be right here on this floor, rather than against our opponent.”

That might be enough to indicate it was a good first day. But as with the optimism since the roster came together, there was more of a sense the pieces might be there, but some assembly is required.

“I get excited about it,” Paul said. “At the same time, on paper never does anything for you. You have to build. That’s what we’ve been doing. Day in, day out, we have to build that trust, knowing what we’re capable of on the offensive end. We have to defend.

“I’m happy now we’re actually playing basketball and we’re getting a chance to put it all together.”