Ready to go but not a finished product
As pleased as the Rockets had to be with where they saw guard Chris Paul on Sunday (on the practice court) and where they didn’t (on the injury report for Tuesday’s opener against the Warriors), Paul was not ready to celebrate just being cleared to practice.
Asked if he was 100 percent, Paul left it at, “I’ll be ready for the game.”
Asked if he had been concerned that his bruised left knee would have prevented that, Paul said again, “I’ll be ready for the game.”
The Rockets in general had little to say about what they expect from that game, with more interest in discussing the days left to get ready. That started with Paul’s return to practice.
He had missed two of last week’s three games because of a bruised left shoulder and then because of the soreness after bumping knees in Memphis. But Sunday’s practice at Toyota Center and Monday’s at Oracle Arena offered a chance to make up for lost time as he continues to adjust to a new offense and role with the Rockets.
He’s not the only one, but P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute played in each of the five preseason games. Paul especially must take on different jobs, playing off the ball on occasion with the starters and running the offense at all times with the second unit.
“It’s very valuable, not only for me, but for our team just to get ready,” Paul said. “Preseason is over. Going into a tough environment. We want to be ready.”
‘A long process’
Though they are guests at the Warriors’ openingnight ring ceremony party, after Sunday’s long video session to go over mistakes made in the preseason — especially against the Spurs on Friday — the Rockets placed little emphasis on who they will play Tuesday, but on how they hope to play. They will not consider themselves a finished product Wednesday or likely any time soon.
“We just want to play well,” guard James Harden said. “We want to start the season off with a good pace. It’s going to be an emotional night for them. It’s an opportunity to get better. We want to take advantage of it. We’re going to go out there and compete at a high level.
“One game. First game
of the season. It’s a long process. We have some key new pieces. It’s not going to happen in a few days or a few weeks. It’s going to be a months process. We’ll find a way to get better every single day.”
Sunday was considered a particularly important part of that process, first with the video session and then with a workout longer than is likely in Oakland on Monday before a season-opening back-to-back.
The Rockets had several breakdowns defensively against the Spurs and even some early in Memphis when coach Mike D’Antoni said their defensive switches were often made “out of convenience” rather than appropriately.
“Hopefully, every practice is really valuable to make steps ahead,” D’Antoni said before Sunday’s workout. “We only have two ahead. We have to make sure we’re in sync and know what we’re doing and clean up from Friday night some of the errors that we made.
“We had some things we wanted to walk through and make sure they know. Mostly defense, we talked about, trying to get everybody on the same page. Why do we do this? We had some discussions to make sure at the end of the day, we’re all on the same page, why that happened and why this happened and how we’re going to cure it. We had a lot of stuff we had to cover.”
Though the Rockets’ double-overtime win in Oakland last December seemed to propel them to a 15-2 month, they were as determined not to count on all that as they were not to judge themselves by opening night.
“No matter what happens on Tuesday, by next May, we won’t be talking about it,” D’Antoni said. “They’ll talk Wednesday, but that’s just about it. We’ll just take everything in stride. We want to play well. We want to win. These practices are important. We just have to keep getting better.”
High expectations
Yet, for all the tempered expectations for the season opener, the Rockets have not backed off their expectations — to contend with the Warriors — for the season.
“It’s going to take some time,” Harden said. “We have a great opportunity. We have some great guys in this locker room. We all have one goal.”
For now, with a regularseason game ahead, they spoke more about practice and handling whatever should come. They opened last season with a loss to the lottery-bound Lakers and stumbled to a 4-3 start. This season, with three or four additions to the rotation (depending on the nights Nene sits out and Tarik Black plays), when the Rockets spoke of the start of the season, rather than describe how they are playing, they looked to how they expect to play eventually.
“I think with the veteran leadership we have, we understand it’s a long season, ups and downs, try to stay the course,” Paul said. “We’re going to see. A new situation for a lot of us, but we’re excited about the process and ready to get it started.”