Signs of life barely emerge
D’Antoni finds progress in win hard to detect even after listless performance a night earlier
MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
The shots went up, one after another Monday night. Ben McLemore missed a drive. Clint Capela missed a putback. McLemore missed a 3-pointer. James Harden missed a step-back 3.
And each time the Rockets missed, they beat the Grizzlies to the rebound.
Finally, when Danuel House Jr. knocked down his only 3-pointer since the opening minutes, the Rockets led by 13, their largest lead of the night. And they had a possession to accurately depict how they escaped the shadow of the ugly, lifeless loss to the Heat to hold off the Grizzlies 107-100.
The Rockets still struggled in many ways. They made just 37.6 percent of their shots. But they won largely because in addition
to getting 44 points from Harden on a night Russell Westbrook sat out for rest in the second half of the back-to-back, the Rockets simply played with far
greater effort and determination than through much of the season’s opening weeks.
“You saw an uptick of energy?” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “You have a microscope over there?
“It was better. It was better. But it was so bad the night before the bar was low. The only think I told them there comes a point, you just got to (say) ‘the heck with everything, I’m playing as hard as I can. Play good, bad, it doesn’t matter.’
“Maybe it was a little better. We just have to get better. We have to get our spirit right. We have to battle better. But it was a little better.”
If D’Antoni was far from jubilant about seeing some effort, he did get impact energy plays from House, who blocked three shots. He got six offensive rebounds from Clint Capela, who had nine in the first six games of the season combined. Mostly, he got enough of a defensive effort in the second half for the Grizzlies to make just 3 of 25 3-pointers, missing all 13 they attempted in the second half.
Much of that was a measure of the Grizzlies’ struggles. While the Rockets came into the game last in the NBA in 3-point percentage defense, the Grizzlies were 29th in 3-point shooting percentage, hitting on just 28.8 percent. With Jaren Jackson Jr. out, they were without one of their irreplaceable building blocks, making their inability to hit open 3s even more conspicuous and damaging.
Still, the Rockets had been giving up 127 points per game, the most in the NBA. They held the Grizzlies 12 shy of the fewest anyone has scored against them in the season’s first six games. After Sunday in Miami, they could not take any success for granted.
“(The energy) was great,” Harden said. “Throughout the course of the game, mistakes are going to happen. We’ll turn the basketball over. Defensively, we might make a mistake here and there. I think the effort was a lot better tonight. We just have to continue to build on that.
“When you bring energy to the game, good things happen for you and for our team. Tonight was a good (example.) If you don’t bring energy and you’re not active, good things won’t happen. That’s what happened last game. Tonight, was the opposite. We’re not worried about making and missing shots. It’s (about) our effort. Tonight was a lot better.”
There were some of the familiar issues. The Rockets were often beaten on back cuts. The Grizzlies scored 66 points in the paint, where they made 33 of 55 shots. The Rockets gave up 25 points off turnovers. Though the 3-point shooting improved, that was largely because Harden made a season high seven 3s on 16 attempts. The rest of the Rockets were 10 of 34 from deep despite getting the usual good looks.
Yet, if the Rockets were going to win that sort of game, they had to play with intensity not just better than in the mauling in Miami but through much of the sluggish start to the season.
“The energy was definitely there tonight,”
McLemore said. “We just want to move it forward through the course of the season. We know what we have to do. It’s never good to lose a game like (Sunday’s) without energy. Every team is going to give our all against us. We just have to bring that energy and hit first.”
On Monday, hitting at all represented an improvement. At this point, the Rockets will consider that progress, heading home with a ragged win they had to have.
jonathan.feigen@chron.com twitter.com/jonathan_feigen