Confidence high despite skid
The Rockets’ five-game losing streak, all played without center Christian Wood and three with two starters out, would have potential to be demoralizing, making it more difficult to turn around. This could be especially true with Wood not close to returning and guard Victor Oladipo out on Monday, a second-consecutive game he will miss after going out on Thursday with a strained right foot.
The Rockets, however, insisted that they believe they can overcome the issues that had led to the slump without also have to turn around attitude issues that can come with losing.
“I personally haven’t heard those types of rumblings in the locker room,” Rockets center DeMarcus Cousins said. “It’s never been a group that uses excuses. We think we can come out and compete every night regardless of who’s playing or who is not playing. We just got to go out there and play the right way.”
The ongoing run of injuries have made it especially difficult to build chemistry. That has been made more of a challenge with guards John Wall and Oladipo limited to one game in back-to-backs. The Rockets, who have another set of games on consecutive nights to end the week, have had their preferred starting lineup in three games this season.
“Our togetherness as a group has to be something that we can control,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “There are things we can control and worrying about those things as far as creating good shots for us and our teammates, making sure we are executing on both ends of the floor, that sort of thing.
“As we’ve been going through this journey of the season, a lot of times I’ve been talking about the controllables and really concentrating on the things you can control, especially when there is a storm brewing around you. This is another one of those cases. ‘What can I do to play well? What are the things I can do so I am contributing?’ But it is also ‘What are the things I can do to help the man next to me play well?’ ”
For Silas, this has been a consistent message necessary through a season marked by adversity, from the unusual trade requests and absences because of health and safety protocols to the familiar and ongoing injury issues.
“It’s part of the job,” Silas said the issues that have filled his first season.
“There’s challenges every day and every game. That’s what the job entails. Obviously, without Christian we are struggling. But we have to find a way to win games. Going through the injuries and going through the back-to-back stuff and keeping guys’ minutes down does make it a little bit challenging, but it is a challenging job.
“Our lineups have been different basically every game most of the season. So, that doesn’t lend itself to chemistry, continuity, all the things that are important in order to build a foundation. No excuses because whatever. We were going through these things when we were winning seven out of eight. We had Christian at that point but as far as individually evaluating guys and that sore of thing, it’s difficult but that’s part of it. It’s just a challenge.”
Team working on defensive issues
While the Rockets’ shooting slump has been especially conspicuous, they were more concerned with their defensive issues in the five-game losing streak, considering them to be uncharacteristic and correctable. They were also a major part of Sunday’s video session and practice in Washington.
“Our defensive approach should be better,” Rockets coach Stephen
Silas said. “We need to contain the basketball better. A lot of the things the Knicks did to us was just driving the ball oneon-one, attacking the paint, and then drawing help and kicking to shooters, hitting guys for lobs, or just scoring themselves. That was the main thing, the defensive attitude that you need to have when it comes to one-on-one type stuff, also the help and being early in the help positions.
“A good indicator of our defense is we are either taking charges or attempting to take charges. We only had one attempted charge. It was Cuz ( DeMarcus Cousins) toward the end of the game and they overruled that.”
The fourth-rated defense in the NBA this season, the Rockets have ranked 24th in the past five games.
“We know why we’ve been playing bad,” Rockets guard John Wall said. “Our defense has been (…) It’s as simple as that. Our defense has been terrible. If you don’t defend at a high level and then you’re not knocking down shots it’s not going to translate. We’re a team even if we’re not knocking down shots, we have to defend at a high level. We haven’t been doing that. You see it results in our losses.”