Self-improvement still goal No. 1
Second-round preparations revolve around honing own skills rather than on the Jazz
As the Rockets reconvened on the Toyota Center practice court Friday for the first time since wrapping up their first-round series against Minnesota on Wednesday, they could not complain about having a workout without a clear opponent in sight.
They likely did not mind Utah and Oklahoma City slugging it out a bit longer, with Utah winning game Game 6 on Friday to advance to face the Rockets, but postponing more specific preparations don’t bother a team that has prided itself on steadfastly sticking with its own style and beliefs regardless of the strengths of the opponent.
“We worry about us,” guard Chris Paul said, falling back to the mantra as naturally as rapid-
firing a crossover dribble from his right hand to left. “We’re going to try to sharpen up on some things offensively and defensively, just practice.
“We talk about it all season long. We’re one of the teams, we have the opportunity to just worry about us. Right now, we’re coming in here to make sure we’re doing what we need to do when we have our principles down.”
The Rockets do prepare game plans.
Their defense might start with basic principles but are tweaked to fit opponents. The Rockets switch on screens, but doubleteam in some matchups and not in others. That, and the defensive rotations those double-teams cause, will have to be covered at some point. But the Rockets were not about to hold two practices — one to get ready for the Jazz and another for the Thunder — on Friday.
Instead, they put that part of the preparations off and concentrated on staying sharp for their first game at Toyota Center.
“A few things (to correct), but most of it is just keeping our rhythm and understanding what we did right,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Offensively, I thought we got better as the series went on. And just trying to re-emphasize all that and hope it sticks.”
The trick on Friday was to do enough to stay in rhythm and not put his veteran team through too tough of a practice in case he learned that night the next round would begin Sunday afternoon, which wound up happening.
“It goes quick,” D’Antoni said. “You got a little bit (of a break). I’ve been in both situations. Whoever comes out of that series will be ready. We should be ready. We’ll have a couple extra days’ rest. There will be a lot of emotion. We have to make sure we play well.
“If you finish up your series, it happens. We could be playing Sunday. We could be playing Tuesday. We don’t know that so you have to be careful with what you do on Friday and Saturday. We’ll try to gauge it as best we can.”
It took much of the first-round series for the Rockets to find a rhythm, going from averaging 103.7 points in the first three game to 120.5 in the final two. Stepping away is preferable to having to grind out a longer series (or risk losing it), but the layoff could sacrifice the rhythm the Rockets struggled to get.
“I don’t know,” D’Antoni said of whether the time off can be detrimental. “I’ll tell you afterwards. I’ve been on both sides, where you come out with so much energy that it’s all good and sometimes you’re a little rusty. I don’t think there’s any formula. You try to avoid it. We’ll adjust. Whatever we have, one thing is we should be physically ready to roll. Defensively, we should be a bear. You can always count on that. Then, we’ll see offensively where we are.”
The Rockets tended to figure out the Timberwolves’ defense as they went along. They made 40.5 percent of their shots and 31.6 percent of their 3-pointers in the first half of their five firstround games and 49 percent of their shots, 37.9 percent of their 3s in the second half.
This was not considered much of a concern since the Rockets were the NBA’s top-scoring firsthalf team in the regular season and scored nearly as many points in the first half (53 per game) as they did with the better shooting in the second half (57.4). But it also might show that if they can adjust in between the second and third quarters, they get the preparations they would need in the days before Game 1.
“It could be you start playing every other day and find more of a rhythm,” D’Antoni said. “It could be more familiarity with their defense, what they’re trying to do, where the spots are, so you’re more ready to shoot because you know where you’re getting your shots. It could be a lot of factors. I do know, sooner or later, our guys figure it out, especially James (Harden) and Chris. They’ll figure out where the type of … shots we can get and you just hope they fall.”
Besides, as different as the Jazz and Thunder are from one another, the Rockets would have been pretty much the same against either. No matter how much time they had to get ready for a specific opponent, they would not want it any other way.
“We played a certain way all year long,” Paul said. “No matter who it is, we’re not going to change up. We play the way the way we play. We guard the way we guard.”