Rockets must corral ‘egos and pride’
HOUSTON — In a season in which the Rockets’ dysfunction has been clear, with mediocrity evident in numbers as indisputable as their 41-41 regular-season record and the 3-1 firstround deficit to the Warriors, Dwight Howard on Monday seemed to suggest more between the lines.
He might have been falling back on familiar messages when he said after the Rockets’ Game 4 loss Sunday that, to get back in the series, the Rockets would have to “put aside anything, egos and pride, and play for each other.”
A day later, however, he did not back off from the issues he seemed to cite.
Asked after the day’s video session if he brought up the pitfalls of “egos and pride” because they had led to the Rockets’ second-half collapse in Game 4, Howard quietly, almost sullenly said, “That’s how I was feeling.”
He appeared to suggest as much with what he did not say when asked about being so uninvolved in the offense in the second half. He had scored 14 points in the first half when he was active in the lane and above the rim. He scored five points in the second half, none in the third quarter when the Warriors blew out the Rockets.
“You have to talk to the appropriate people for that,” Howard said.
If Howard was not the “appropriate” person to ask about his scoring, it would seem that those responsible for getting him the ball would be.
In a game in which the Warriors rolled up 38 assists, the Rockets had just seven in the second half, one in the fourth quarter. The Rockets went from scoring 30 points in the paint in the first half to 18 in the second half.
“Just got to get him the ball,” Houston interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We have to throw it down there. We feel like we have an advantage in the post.
“One of the things that gets us and gets a lot of teams against them is when you get down and you start thinking you need to take threes to get back in the game and you take more jump shots instead of dumping it inside and settling them down a little bit.
“We have an advantage there. We should take advantage of it.”
Though Howard’s lack of touches is far from a new issue — he averaged 8.5 shots in the regular season and took nine Sunday — rarely has the disparity between the Rockets’ offense with and without him inside been more apparent or damaging.
The Warriors hit 21 threepointers, the most ever in a playoff game. The Rockets misfired all day, making 5 of 27 (18.5 percent) from long range, as if the goal was to match the Warriors’ sharpshooting at the expense of Howard’s and Donatas Motiejunas’ touches inside.
“One of the things that Golden State does a good job of, they put so much pressure on you offensively, they can get you in moments of frustration,” Bickerstaff said. “In those moments of frustration, even when you’re doing the right things and they’re still making threes or they’re getting out on the break or you’re missing shots, they take you out of what you want to do and where your focus is.
“You see the threes going and see the threes going and in your mind, it’s, ‘We need to get some threes to stay in the game.’ Then, the ball doesn’t get back to the post where it needs to.”
The Warriors won’t have Stephen Curry to make those threes. Curry is out for at least two weeks with a grade 1 MCL sprain in his right knee. That shifts the emphasis to relentless intensity and execution, the qualities the Rockets could not match in the second half of Game 4 whether or not ego and pride got in the way.
“I don’t think ego and pride was at issue in the second half of (Sunday’s) game particularly,” Bickerstaff said. “In order to win at this level, you have to play at a certain intensity, with a certain spirit. His point of giving in to the team is the most important thing. I don’t think it was the cause of the third quarter and the way we played. But he’s right; that’s the only way you win at this level with any magnitude.
“You can be OK when you’re a bunch of individuals, but if you want to be a champion in the playoffs, the only thing that matters is the team. That’s the way you win.”
The Rockets saw that up close Sunday. The difference was clear. But if Howard only hinted at the issues Sunday, he was unambiguous about the attitude the Rockets would have to bring to Oakland.
“If you don’t believe you can win, stay in Houston,” Howard said. “Don’t get on the plane.”