Free falling: Broken team just horrible

Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Steve Kerr are still winning NBA games and fighting for the playoffs in the loaded Western Conference in 2021.

The broken team that used to be the Golden State Warriors’ greatest rival?

You can buy a discounted James Harden jersey for $25 inside Toyota Center. Or a discounted Russell Westbrook jersey. Or a discounted DeMarcus Cousins jersey.

If you want an already discarded part of the worst kind of history.

The leftovers for the 2020-21 Rockets lost their 18th consecutive game Wednesday night, falling 108-94 to Curry’s Warriors and making instant franchise history with yet another numbing defeat.

This team is bad.

Baaaaaaaad.

I mean, horrible. Bad luck. Bad timing. Bad offense. Even worse defense.

The near-empty stands, masked faces and social distance during the coronavirus pandemic helped cover up all the nightly on-court confusion and inconsistency.

But from 1967 through January 2021, it never was this bad for the Rockets. Now it is. And the organization’s gradual acknowledgment that a full rebuild is becoming more and more necessary has only made the last 18 games more painful.

Kevin Porter Jr., 20, needs on-court help and was a team leader in another blowout defeat. That’s where these Rockets are at right now.

The offseason started with Mike D’Antoni leaving and Daryl Morey departing. Westbrook demanded a trade. Harden did the same, screwing up the first half of the regular season and pushing the franchise that gave him everything into a canyon.

Christian Wood finally returned Wednesday. But veteran P.J. Tucker, once D’Antoni’s irreplaceable glue guy, was traded, removing one of the last remaining pieces from the second-best run in Rockets history.

The pulsing glow of Warriors-Rockets has already faded into modern NBA history. But it was The Association’s most intriguing and thrilling rivalry for years, defining the eras of two Western Conference franchises and propelling the league into a new world dictated by floor spacing, small ball and endless 3-pointers.

“It was great for the NBA,” first-year Rockets coach Stephen Silas said pregame. “It really was like the precursor to how teams are playing now. Pace and space and shooting all over the floor. Immense ballhandling, passing talent. Both teams just had so much versatility.”

Officially, the battle always ended one-sided. Warrrrrrriors was the recurring theme. Golden State knocked the Rockets out of the playoffs four times from 2015-19, including two Western Conference finals runs and a second-round ending in ’19 that left D’Antoni holding his face in his hands and Harden acknowledging a major change must be made.

Chris Paul, whose bad hamstring kept the Rockets from finally overcoming the Warriors in 2018 and likely winning the NBA Finals, was traded away in July 2019, and the rivalry was never the same.

Golden State entered Wednesday stuck at 20-20, in ninth place in the West and another year removed from being a Finals contender. Curry still does brilliant Curry things. Green still does his highly unique triple-double thing. But Kevin Durant plays with Harden in Brooklyn, Klay Thompson still isn’t back on the hardwood, and Utah is a bigger nightly threat in 2021 than the Warriors.

The Rockets desperately tried to mirror, copy, outpunch and outshoot the Warriors for five mustwatch seasons that should become an ESPN “30 for 30” documentary someday. Two months after trading Harden, a team falling closer and closer to rock bottom would love to eventually end up with a few of Golden State’s current assets. And have the talent to at least play .500 ball again.

Porter attacked early, recording seven points, two made 3s, three assists and two rebounds in seven minutes, while smoothly connecting with Wood.

But a frustrated Tucker was sent to Milwaukee, again a contender to represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals. And while the new, beat-up Rockets initially remained close with the West’s No. 9 team, it was soon 55-37. Then it was 63-42. Then it was 68-44 Warriors at halftime, which meant the Rockets’ last winning a game on Feb. 4 would remain a historical fact.

Curry left the game early in the fourth quarter and slowly limped toward Golden State’s locker room. But another lopsided defeat still followed for Houston’s NBA team.

The Rockets fell to San Antonio, Charlotte, New Orleans, Miami and New York. Chicago and Cleveland. Memphis and Cleveland again. Brooklyn, Sacramento, Utah, Atlanta and Golden State, making franchise history against the team that always ended up with four playoff wins when the Rockets were on the other side during the rivalry’s shining golden years.

Mounting inner turmoil set up this stunning fall.

Injuries, misplaced faith and misguided decisions turned 11-10 into 11-28.

But you have to be bad to lose 18 consecutive games for the first time in franchise history during a season when Harden, Westbrook, Morey, D’Antoni and Tucker wanted out.

The Rockets are horrible right now.

And it’s only gotten worse.