Brief surge does it
Strong 3rd period enough in Westbrook-OKC reunion
The Rockets kept firing away, believing as always that the 3-point touch that had been so loyal to them, that had for so long defined them, would eventually return.
They were right, at least for a third-quarter stretch just long enough to build a sufficient cushion to top the Oklahoma
City Thunder 116-112 on Monday night in Russell Westbrook’s first meeting against his former team.
It was not the shooting, dramatically improved as it was before it fell off again in the fourth quarter, that got the offense going.
It was the defense that sparked the offense, and the energy that inspired
Westbrook to follow a win against his old team with a message to his new team that the energy must start coming much sooner.
“It’s up to me to make sure my guys are ready to go, not just ready, but competing, playing hard,” Westbrook said. “Playing hard is not an option for me. It’s something we’ve got to take pride in. To get to that level, we got to do that every night.”
When the Rockets began playing with the energy that had been badly lacking in the first half, the shooting finally, temporarily, came along for the ride.
“It is that simple,” Rockets coach
Mike D’Antoni said. “That’s exactly what it is. If you don’t have the energy on defense, usually on offense you don’t have it. Sometimes they go in and it can lull you to sleep and you lose your defensive energy.
“My experience, if you don’t play hard defensively, your shot is short.
One leads to the other. You get some fast breaks. The crowd gets into it. And everything comes easy.”
For the Rockets, even the defense can be measured by 3-point shooting.
In the first half, when the Thunder moved easily offensively to put up 62 points, the Rockets made just 4 of 25 3-pointers. In the third quarter, when the Rockets held Oklahoma City to 7-of-19 shooting, the Rockets sank 5 of 9 3-pointers and attacked the rim to score 39 points.
Even when things fell apart again in the fourth quarter, the Rockets won with effort. Like Westbrook swooping in for the offensive rebound of a missed James Harden 3-pointer and then setting up P.J. Tucker for a 3pointer with 54.8 seconds left that allowed Harden to close out the win at the free throw line.
Tucker finished with 17 points, the first time in his career he has scored at least 15 points in three consecutive games. Harden had a season-high 40 points. Westbrook marked the occasion of his first game against the Thunder with 21 points, nine assists, 12 rebounds and a point made.
“It was different obviously,” he said. “I treat every game the same. I go out and compete and do the best I can.”
Few players remain from most of Westbrook’s Oklahoma City years. Steven Adams is the only Thunder player that was Westbrook’s teammate longer than the three years Harden spent with him. Westbrook did exchange hugs and hand slaps with Oklahoma City coaches and staff members, but once the game began, he said all that was irrelevant.
“This is how it goes; when I hoop, I have no friends,” Westbrook said. “They know not to talk to me. Steven is a real close friend of mine, but inside those lines, there’s no friends. Spalding. That’s my friend. And my teammates. That’s it.
“Before the game and after the game, I talk to those guys. That doesn’t mean I don’t have friends. During the game, I don’t. It’s that simple. If you try to be my friend, I ain’t going to say … to you.”
That attitude was what the Rockets needed with their offense still so fickle. They needed more than five minutes to score in the fourth quarter, more than sixth before their first bucket. When Chris Paul, who had 15 points in his return to Toyota Center, began scoring, the Thunder closed to within three.
As with Saturday’s win against the Pelicans, another team playing the second half of a back-toback, the Rockets did just enough in the closing minutes to get the win. They also received a lesson.
“We picked up our defensive intensity,” Harden said of the difference. “You know, it’s early in the season. That’s what’s going to get us over the top, what gets us where we want to go.”