Defense rests on recent surge
Win streak ends at six with energy level lacking
Returning to the comforts of home was supposed to be a good thing, even an advantage. For the Rockets on Tuesday, it was part of the trap that lured them in.
They had grown to feel good about themselves and the six-game winning streak they brought back for their one-game stopover in Toyota Center. They were atop the Western Conference standings. They led the Raptors by as much eight points early.
The Rockets felt as content as if about to curl up for a nap on the couch and did not fully wipe the sleep from their eyes until it was too late. Their comeback made things briefly interesting before the Raptors smacked them with a 129-113 lesson before hitting the road again.
“Our energy was way low,” said forward Trevor Ariza, whose season-high 20 points were wasted. “We didn’t come out good, and it lingered through the whole game.
“There’s always …
things you can learn when you play. We’d rather learn and win than learn and lose. We already know what our problem was. We came out with low energy from the start of the game. We can’t do that.”
If that was not clear, it was by halftime when the Raptors had put up 76 points, more than they had scored in a half all season or the Rockets had allowed.
Even when the Rockets led, they lacked the intensity that had fueled the winning streak. They just stayed in front with James Harden rolling through a 16-point first quarter. But the Rockets had the fifth-ranked defense in November, moving them to eighth overall this season. When the defense betrayed them, it was a matter of time before the Raptors rolled.
“(The energy) definitely wasn’t there,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We struggled. There’s all kinds of reasons. We weren’t sharp. It was ugly. There were so many fouls. It was choppy. No one could get a rhythm.
“We didn’t have enough energy to overcome the other obstacles out there. It happens. It was four in six nights. It was a little bit of a trap game. We played so well on the road. You come home, you feel good about yourselves. You’re home so you feel secure. And we weren’t sharp.”
Crawling into deep hole
The Raptors went from that eight-point deficit late in the first quarter to a 12-point lead at halftime. With the Rockets bickering with officials as much as battling the Raptors, the deficit grew to 20. But the Rockets did eventually defend, bringing them back into the game but also demonstrating how avoidable the failings had been.
“Sometimes you let down,” D’Antoni said. “It’s hard to turn it back on. We tried. We got close in the second half. But we just didn’t have enough.”
The Raptors went from making nearly 60 percent of their shots in the first half to 41.2 percent in the third quarter. After scoring 45 second-quarter points, they put up 27 in the third. The Rockets mostly lived at the line as Harden’s 19 of 19 freethrow shooting set a franchise record for made free throws without a miss.
With 7½ minutes left, the Rockets had closed to within five. But Harden picked up fouls on consecutive possessions, forcing him to take a seat with five fouls. The Rockets went 2½ minutes without scoring as the Raptors pulled away for good, with the Rockets seeming to have spent the energy they had making the run.
“During the fourth quarter, we tried to push back,” Harden said. “Then every possession is crucial because you’ve spent so much energy trying to come back. We can’t put ourselves in that situation.”
Off from long range
Harden had 38 points with 11 assists but went 1-of-5 in the fourth quarter. Eric Gordon, who had scored at least 20 points in 11 of his 13 games this season, missed all seven of his 3-pointers to finish with just 12 points as the Rockets made 12 of 39 shots (30.8 percent) from the 3-point line.
But they knew the problem was not with their shooting or even having the comeback fall short, as much as all that was lacking that made it necessary.
“We let up,” forward Ryan Anderson said. “We didn’t have that grind the past few games. Every once in a while, you’re going to have a game (where) that happens. That’s how it was tonight.”