Defensive deficiencies exposed in defeat
D’Antoni laments lack of energy out of gate that’s become problematic
MINNEAPOLIS — The lead was not as large, reaching nine points and then only briefly.
The collapse was nowhere near as precipitous as in Saturday’s loss to the Thunder or the Rockets’ previous game against the Timberwolves. The issues, however, were the same.
Even when the Rockets led, there was a lack of energy, as if the Rockets wanted to pour in some 3s and win the easy way.
As much as the Rockets could stay in the game whenever James Harden caught a wave and rode it to a burst of 3-pointers, there was the small matter of the other end of the floor. Some things, as the Rockets reached the All-Star break, had not changed.
The Timberwolves poured in points from the start. With the game on the line, however, the Rockets were more helpless to stop them than ever. The Timberwolves made 11 of 14 shots in the final eight minutes, holding off Harden’s late charge and finishing off a 121-111 win Wednesday night. But the Rockets
31 AND COUNTING: James Harden tied Wilt Chamberlain for the second-longest streak of scoring 30 points or more:
65 WILT CHAMBERLAIN Season: 1961-62
31 WILT CHAMBERLAIN Seasons: 1961-62 and 1962-63
31 JAMES HARDEN Season: 2018-19
recognized the familiar issues that would beat them from the start.
“The whole game was kind of, we didn’t come out with necessary (energy),” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We didn’t come out with any fire. We don’t put people away. We let them hang around. Then they make some 3s. It happened on Saturday. It happened tonight. We have to get a little more enthusiasm about playing a game.”
Harden finished with 42 points, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers after he came away limping from a collision with the Wolves’ Dario Saric. But with the Wolves up eight heading to the final minute, Harden and Chris Paul missed 3-pointers and Harden lost the ball out of bounds, ending the Rockets’ longshot chances.
But the real issue was defensively. The Wolves made 54.4 percent of their shots, including 10 of 20 3-pointers, while scoring 70 points in the paint to score far too easily for the Rockets to keep pace.
“That’s on us,” D’Antoni said. “We had a hard time guarding, rebounding. You got to do that with enthusiasm. We didn’t do that in the first half.
“They didn’t play exceptionally well in the first half. You let them hanging around, they’re good NBA players. They start feeling their oats. We didn’t guard. We’ve had about 10 games like this. It’s inexcusable.”
The Rockets did score well enough for a stretch to lead. After taking his 30-point scoring streak down to his last shot Monday, Harden wasted little time taking care of that piece of business.
With a four-point play — his league-high 15th of the season — he had 31 points with 7:19 left in the third quarter and the Rockets held a seven-point lead.
Harden had tied Wilt Chamberlain for the second-longest streak of 30 point games at 31, 34 from Chamberlain’s record. But the Rockets could not build on that.
The Rockets slowed badly offensively, coming up empty on five straight possessions before Josh Okogie stuffed a Harden 3 at the shot-clock buzzer to get the Target Center crowd roaring.
Okogie completed a 10-0 run to a three-point lead with a 3-pointer. When Derrick Rose finished a three-point play, the Wolves had gone from a nine-point deficit early in the second half to a ninepoint lead.
The Rockets could never maintain the intensity to make their small-ball defense work.
That was clear. Why the Rockets have the same issues was not.
“I don't know. We got to figure it out,” Paul said. “We sucked on the defensive end tonight. A lot of it was me switching onto some of those bigger guys. I got to be better. Defensively, we have to keep them out of the paint and giving guys career nights.
“We’ve had too many nights like that this year where it feels like we can’t get a stop. The way they were scoring it was almost effortless.”
Jeff Teague made 11 of 16 shots in the paint, taking just one 3-pointer on his way to 27 points. KarlAnthony Towns had 25 points, making 11 of 18 shots, usually battling P.J. Tucker with a 6-inch height advantage inside, but also going 3-of-4 on 3-pointers when he stepped outside.
Stopping him, however, was not the only way in which the Rockets were stumped.
“I wish I could answer that question,” Gordon said when asked why playing with consistent intensity remains such an issue. “The small team that we have, we have to be as active as possible. Tonight, it was a little of everything.”