Unlike predecessors, team finds ways to avoid collapse, succeed
Jump-shooting team. Live by the 3, die by the 3. All offense, no defense. That’s the Rockets, right? Not in 2017-18. And definitely not if the initial results of this season’s playoffs are to be believed.
The best regular-season team in the NBA blew an 11-point, first-quarter lead and was outscored 54-50 by the uneven Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half of Game 1. The 3-point-dependent Rockets connected on just 27 percent (10-of-37) of their attempts beyond the arc and watched key names Chris Paul, Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza and P.J. Tucker shoot a combined 10-of-35 from the floor. “It was ugly,” Gordon said. A 104-101 victory over Minnesota on Sunday night at Toyota Center was also a thing of mi-
nor beauty if you watched this team fall apart over and over again in recent playoff runs.
Outside of another MVP-caliber night from James Harden, nothing about Game 1 was an instant classic. If you DVR’d the broadcast because you were watching 44-year-old Rangers pitcher Bartolo Colon nearly throw a perfect game against the Astros at nearby Minute Maid Park, you’ll make it through life just fine by hitting “delete” and immediately moving on to Game 2 of the Western Conference first-round series.
“We just couldn’t make a shot,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said.
Which, in an obviously backward way, might have been the best thing about his team’s Game 1 win.
Harden stays reliable
Harden was the team’s only reliable jump shooter. Clint Capela was the No. 2 scoring option, despite 20 of his 24 points arriving in the first half. Paul made a “Bad News Bears” reference after a turnover-filled victory.
But instead of worrying and whining the day after — they rested too much; all the winning dulled their fire; the Warriors blew out the Spurs in Game 1 and the Rockets barely beat the No. 8 seed Timberwolves? — there was the realization this was exactly the type of victory the 65-win Rockets needed.
Tough. Gritty. Heck, messy.
“It was good to get a win like that. … Now we just work on the mistakes and we’ll be a better team along the way,” said Gordon, who was 3-of-10 from the floor and just 1-of-7 on 3s.
Look, if this continues in Game 2 or the highly unlikely happens (the Timberwolves return to Minnesota with a 1-1 series tie), then we can talk about a toxic combination of too much rest and relaxation. But we can’t have it both ways.
We can’t wonder before the start of every series what’s going to happen on the night the 3-pointobsessed Rockets clank their 3s, then immediately begin expecting the worst after one off night.
Paul will recover. Gordon will find his shot. Tucker and Ariza aren’t combining for 2-of-11 every evening.
The old playoff Rockets — letting us down and giving in at the worst possible time — blow Game 1 in the final minutes and immediately enter the postseason upside down. These Rockets won with intensity, tenacity and welltimed defense, which is everything we wanted to see more of in past years.
“We don’t want to rely on just making shots,” D’Antoni said. “I think last year we did that, and the previous teams. But we can win not making shots.”
Win by not making shots.
It sounds completely counterintuitive, especially for a team that led the league with 15.3 average made 3s during the regular season and ranked second in scoring (112.4).
Defense steps up
But the court annually shrinks in the playoffs and the action slows. Constant fast breaks ultimately turn into oneon-one isolation. And for as offensively superb as Golden State and Cleveland were during the previous three NBA Finals, both trophy winners could always turn to their defenses to change games in the closing minutes.
“We are getting better defensively,” said Ariza, in one of his team’s most positive comments after Game 1.
Harden dropped 44, Capela was an inside force — owning the much-hyped Karl-Anthony Towns — and D’Antoni’s Rockets played just enough defense to emerge with a W.
The Rockets have the rest of this series to smooth themselves out in time for Oklahoma City or Utah in Round 2.
But if these Rockets really are going to be different in 2018, Game 1 was a reminder winning ugly counts just as much as every other victory — especially in the NBA playoffs.