Rockets won’t rush Harden back
D’Antoni won’t rush Harden back, says he has others who can score
The 14-game winning streak that propelled the Rockets, basketball’s sabermetric dream team, to the NBA’s best record validated their design. They engineered blowouts with a masterful duo of pickand-roll point guards who led the fusillade on one end and a thicket of rangy defenders who protected the other. It all looked so easy.
A coach and a roster of veterans almost entirely unfamiliar with championships — Trevor Ariza is the only player with a ring, which he won with the Lakers nine seasons ago — broke from their humility, unable to deny their excellence, to declare that no opponent matched up with them well.
The bliss of winning invited nagging questions about how the Rockets could be prepared for adversity. Now they are steeped in it.
After losing five consecutive games, slipping to the second-best record, then narrowly escaping the Lakers with a double-overtime win, the Rockets will play a significant number of games without James Harden, the star guard who has transformed the
franchise into a consistent contender.
On Tuesday, the Rockets (26-9) practiced for the first time since Harden suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, which signifies a partial tear. He will miss at least two weeks before being re-evaluated but could miss more time.
“He’s fine,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He’s going to be bored out of his mind the next four weeks, two weeks, whatever it is.”
Of the seven teams the Rockets will play through Jan. 15, only the Warriors, Pistons and Trail Blazers have winning records. The first game without Harden will be Wednesday at Orlando (12-26).
With more than half the season left, D’Antoni emphasized that there is “no hurry” for Harden to return at less than full strength.
No sympathy
“I know 29 other teams don’t feel sorry for us, so no reason in us feeling sorry for ourselves,” D’Antoni said. “Just gotta make the best out of a bad situation, but everybody deals with (injuries). There’s no reason why we can’t do it.”
Harden’s hamstring is the latest of several injuries that occasionally have hurt but not hamstrung the Rockets this season. Guard Chris Paul missed 14 games with a bruised knee and three with a strained groin. Center Clint Capela missed five of seven games, first with a bruised foot and then with a fractured orbital, before playing on Sunday. A dislocated shoulder has cost forward Luc Mbah a Moute nine games and counting.
“It’s funny,” forward P.J. Tucker said. “You guys were asking, ‘How does it feel not facing any challenges and winning all those games in a row easy?’ Now we’re facing challenges every week.”
Regarding the need to fill Harden’s scoring void, Paul said: “That man averaged 30 points. It’ll be by committee, but we’ll be cool.”
Harden, 28, leads the NBA with 32.3 points per game and ranks third in assists (9.1). He has accounted for more than 36 percent of his team’s points, more than any other player to have appeared in at least 27 games this season.
D’Antoni said his offensive scheme will compensate for one lost scorer (“I’ve always coached teams that scored”), but life without Harden will be hardest because the Rockets lose his reliability. Since joining the Rockets in 2012, Harden has played the fifth-most games in the NBA. In the past four seasons, he has missed only one game because of injury.
Gordon becomes starter
Harden is one of the NBA’s best at creating open 3-point shots for teammates with his threatening drives, and he is the Rockets’ best change of pace on rare nights when they shoot inconsistently. His 10.5 free throws per game are more than twice those of the team’s secondbest penetrator, guard Eric Gordon, who will substitute for Harden in the starting lineup.
Harden’s propensity to make contested baskets at the rim or convert foul attempts at the line has made him a rarefied asset.
“We’ve got plenty of guys that can score,” D’Antoni said. “It’s maybe a tough bucket here and there that we have to compensate (for) with team play, moving the ball and hitting big shots.”
The Rockets have been most tantalizing when they attacked with Harden and Paul, who combined have 14 All-Star selections. But when Paul sent shivers throughout the NBA by joining the Rockets last summer, he imagined pairing with Harden for more than 18 of 35 games this season.
Paul is averaging roughly 17 points and nine assists in more than 31 minutes per game. He was reluctant to describe himself as a “luxury” that can mitigate losing Harden. “The idea was to play together,” Paul said with a smirk.
Unable to sling crosscourt passes to Harden, Paul dispensed advice to a teammate unfamiliar with watching from the sideline.
“We talked to him about getting through injuries,” Paul said of the team support. “Sometimes the hardest part is the mental part. I just feel bad for him.”
D’Antoni did not dwell on how Harden’s absence will impact the home game on Thursday against the reigning champion Golden State Warriors, who recaptured the league’s best record when the Rockets sank last week.
“We’ve always had the mentality of: ‘So what? What’s next?’ ” D’Antoni said. “Yeah, we blew a couple games. … It happens on a lot of teams, but now it’s time to get back to work and get some wins.”