Westbrook sizzles, shooting fizzles
Guard debuts with a double-double in season opener, but Houston goes cold in second half
The Rockets had done all that they wanted, all they could have hoped well into a rollicking, riveting season opener.
They had figured out the Bucks defense on James Harden that had confounded them a season ago. They had unleashed Russell Westbrook, getting him in full flight.
They had led by 16 and even when all that was gone, replaced by a fourth-quarter deficit, they rallied to within a few strong minutes of taking the win.
The could not, however, manage to do the most basic, most irreplaceable part of their game when they had to most. They could not shoot.
With the game seeming under control through the finish when it was on the line in the closing minutes, the Rockets could not make the shots they are built to take, falling 117-111 to the Bucks in their season-opener.
There was little mystery about where a game in which the Rockets led by 16 got away.
“We didn’t make any shots in the second half,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “In the first half, everybody was knocking down 3s and playing. We never got any kind of rhythm in the second half. They are a real good defensive team, but the shots that we had, we couldn’t knock them down. Especially up nine, up seven, wide-open 3, wideopen 3 again. After a while, they got us.”
The Rockets made just 5 of 27 3-pointers in the second half, and the Rockets finished 12 of 45 shots.
Harden finished with 19 points and 14 assists, but had just three second-half points, all in the last 1:26.
The Rockets, however, could have won with that. The Bucks had made their defense about stopping Harden, keeping a defender to his side or even behind him to take away his step-back 3 and force him to the seven-footers at the rim. Harden was able to work instead as an effective playmaker, until the shots that poured in around him in the first half, began missing.
He then looked to get going, but never could find his touch.
“You got to make shots,” D’Antoni said. “To beat teams like that, you got to make shots. They made the big ones. We didn’t. We missed foul shots all night.
“Guys have to step up. That’s their game plan. James, I think during the season, will be more ready to do it. But they’re collapsing on James. He’s finding people. He’s got 14 assists. He’d have had 20 if we made our shots.”
Harden, however, took just 13 shots, going 0 of 7 in the second half.
“I didn’t play well offensively all night,” Harden said. “This one’s on me. I wasn’t aggressive enough. I didn’t make shots. Eric Gordon had five or six wideopen shots. They made a couple shots, tough shots. We missed them.”
When Harden faded, Westbrook drove the Rockets to their late chance. He started a run with a pair of sensational offensive rebounds. He finished a break for a three-point play and following by taking a pass from Harden for a slam.
“He was rolling,” D’Antoni said. “It will be fun to watch him. When the lights go on, he’s got that competitive spirit and the athleticism kicks in. He’s like a rocket out there, no pun intended. He’s a competitor, and he’s coming at you.”
Westbrook had 24 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists, scoring 16 fourth-quarter points to keep the Rockets in the game. The rest of the Rockets made just 1 of 15 shots in the fourth quarter, with 13 of those attempts coming from deep.
“They’re good, they’re great,” Westbrook said of the shots the Rockets put up. “Ten or 12 open 3s that Eric, P.J. (Tucker,) I, even James usually knock down. We’re fine.”
The Rockets were not close to making enough of them to keep pace down the stretch, even after Giannis Antetokounmpo fouled out with five minutes still left, having put up 30 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in just 28 minutes. The Bucks scored 39 fourth-quarter points, going to Brook Lopez inside after Antetokounmpo departed, scoring 16 points in the final 5:18 without him.
By then, the Rockets had already misfired into a hole, betrayed by what they like to do most.
“We could be really good defensively,” D’Antoni said. “We can be athletic as hell. We can push the ball. There’s a lot of good things. We have to tighten things up.”
Mostly, when they get wideopen shots, the ones they want, they have to make a few.