Defense showing improvement
Center Capela helps shut down opposing teams near the rim
NEW ORLEANS — Unsure as the Rockets might be, given the level of competition lately, about how much their previously shoddy defense has improved, they are certain of one thing.
“It’s better,” coach Mike D’Antoni said.
That is a start, even if improving on the defensive stupor that filled the opening weeks of the season is not saying much.
Actually, there are two certainties. The defense has improved, and it needed to.
“To win in this league, you have to defend,” guard Russell Westbrook said after the Rockets shut down the Bulls 117-94 on
Saturday. “There’s no night off. You have to defend every single night against some of the best teams.”
Even considering the benefits of facing teams playing with their eyes closed, there was little doubt the Rockets had done
more than simply watch bad teams shoot badly.
When they split their first six games of the season, the Rockets left no mystery about what was lacking. They ranked 29th in the NBA in defensive rating, lit up not just by the Heat in the blowout in Miami, but by the Pelicans and, especially, the Wizards.
In the three games since, the Rockets have had the third-rated defense. Even beyond the numbers against misfiring opponents, there has been obvious improvement in energy
and attentiveness
“We were talking and switching and doing the right thing,” D’Antoni said. “Clint (Capela), his presence guarding the rim really helped. He bothered a lot of shots, blocked shots. Overall, good. Better.”
Asked what had changed, guard James Harden said, “Our talk, our aggressiveness. We’re getting after it. We were too soft earlier. We have to make teams feel us more defensively.”
Capela’s improvement has been particularly conspicuous. He had 10 blocked shots in the first seven games of the season. He had 10 in the past two.
As much as the Rockets
benefited from the poor 3point shooting of the Grizzlies, Warriors and Bulls in the past three games, Capela contested a league-high 13.3 shots per game within 6 feet. In the first six games, he had defended 6.7 shots inside per game.
“Clint is the big one,” D’Antoni said. “If we can rebound and get into people, we’ll be all right.”
Though opponents of late have missed open shots — in some cases more open 3-pointers than teams that rolled against the Rockets were getting — they also have not been moving as easily. The season began with opponents driving and cutting to break down the Rockets’ defense, finding
little resistance along the way. That changed after the embarrassing blowout at Miami.
“We’re trying to make the effort to do those things,” guard Eric Gordon said. “We have to sustain it. For a veteran team like this, we should be able to. We just have to make a concerted effort to stay in front of the ball better and help each other. We’re taking baby steps to get there.”
In the past three games, Rockets opponents made 39.9 percent of their shots. In the previous three, opponents made 55.1 percent.
Some of that, maybe much of that, was because the Grizzlies and Bulls shot 3-pointers as if aiming for
state fair midway rims and the Warriors shot as if their five most irreplaceable players were out with injuries.
The Bulls put up 19 3pointers when wide open Saturday. They made three. That was nine more wide-open attempts than the Wizards had when they scored 158 points against the Rockets.
Some of the Rockets’ improvement might have come from the expected regression to the mean. The Wizards and Nets, especially, knocked down 3-pointers that were generally defended well at a rate the Rockets believed was unsustainable. The Bulls and Grizzlies missed those
shots, and nearly all the others, whether open or contested.
On Saturday, the Rockets held the Bulls to the fewest points (94) on the worst shooting (37.8 percent) they had allowed this season, success more remarkable in that they committed 24 turnovers to often put their defense in poor position to start possessions.
“You can tell it’s just better,” D’Antoni said. “I know they missed shots, but other people weren’t missing shots. It’s a little combination of both. We’re not as good as we have to be, but it’s better than it was.”