What could go wrong? Something, eventually
Blowout streak goes on, but schedule will be stiffening soon
LOS ANGELES — James Harden was right. The Rockets would eventually face the adversity he said was coming.
It was a tad breezy in Los Angeles on Monday should any of the Rockets have wanted to spend their off day sailboarding.
Other than that, midway through a six-day stay in the town nearly half the team has called or still calls home, the Rockets would have been hard-pressed to find anything going wrong.
Their 118-95 blowout of the Lakers on Sunday night was their seventh straight doubledigit victory, three shy of the NBA record they matched during a 22-game winning streak 10 seasons ago (and previously accomplished by the 1946-47 Washington Capitols and 2003-04 New Jersey Nets). Chris Paul has never lost a game in a Rockets uniform. Harden was named Player of the Week again. They seem pleased. Winning this regularly — at 18-4 they lead the Western Conference with the thirdbest start in franchise his-
tory — would tend to make people who play basketball for a living happy.
The Rockets, however, insist the mood is not so upbeat because they are winning; they are winning because of the attitude.
“Just the selflessness of everybody,” forward P.J. Tucker said. “Everybody’s worried about the team. Everybody wants to win. When you get a veteran group like this, guys that have been around the block and know how it goes, that’s what you get. It’s really nice. It’s refreshing to me because I’ve never been on a team like that. It makes it fun.”
There have been other factors to explain the Rockets’ roll, from Harden’s strong start to a weak schedule, with every addition to last season’s 55-win team playing up to expectations or surpassing them.
The Rockets, however, cite attitude, if not for the caliber of play, for keeping it there, improving and handling things when eventually they do slip.
“It sounds crazy, but I don’t think we’ve played up to our standards, as far as our defense, our turnovers, giving up offensive rebounds,” Paul said. “We’re capable of a lot more. Going into every game, it’s about us. We’ve just got to continue to get better.
“The good thing about us having vets and communicating, we got here Friday, the game was on Sunday. We talk about stuff. Even though we’re here, (it’s) nice in L.A., we have a job to do. We have to handle business, and we communicate.”
Title precedents
The Rockets have won an NBA-record six consecutive road games by at least 15 points. All of the teams with the previous fivegame runs of road blowouts — the 1969-70 Knicks, 2003-04 Pistons and 201112 Heat — won that season’s championship.
The Rockets have often followed blowouts with calls to improve, insisting they won’t let complacency stop them.
“(It’s about) keeping our energy high and playing as hard as you can for 48 minutes, staying locked in, no matter who you’re playing against,” forward Trevor Ariza said. “It’s hard to do those things.
“We all want the same thing, so we police ourselves. When you’re slacking, we let you know. It usually works, because everybody knows it’s coming from the same place because we all have the same goals.”
The Rockets are the NBA’s only team in the top five of offensive and defensive rating.
Yet as well as they have played, the Rockets have benefited from the way the schedule has broken in their favor. According to NBA.com, they have played the second-easiest schedule in the league based on opponent record, rest days and number of home and road games. That does not even take into account opponents’ key injuries, including to the Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis and Enes Kanter, the Grizzlies’ Mike Conley and the Nets’ starting lineup.
The Rockets move from that to playing six of their next seven games against teams with winning records. But when coach Mike D’Antoni issued warnings, it was not about the competition, but about the Rockets’ attitude about the Rockets.
Energy booster
“The only thing I told them is we have to fight not having energy,” D’Antoni said. “Then fight little things, little annoyances. Hang in there whether you get enough time or you don’t, or whether the ball goes in or not, or the referee calls a good one or bad one. If we stay within ourselves, play good basketball, have the energy, we’re a tough out, really tough.
“I don’t expect to win all the rest of the games. Things happen. We have to keep fighting, keep pushing.”
The Rockets pledged that they will stick with what has worked. But when they cited a to-do list, they talked about attitude that leads to 3s-and-D, rather than anything to be found on a stat sheet.
“Just not get too relaxed,” Harden said. “Know what the bigger picture is. Just keep attacking. Have energy every game, because every game isn’t going to be perfect. We want to win every game, but it’s not going to happen.”
That they felt the need to say that, even to themselves, demonstrated how well things have gone, though temperatures did briefly dip below 72 degrees in the Los Angeles area.