Harden has help on rising Rockets
And now, after steamrolling LeBron James and surging past Russell Westbrook, the Warriors hit the road to confront another distinctive challenge: The Beard.
James Harden still might consider defense a vague rumor, but the man knows what to do with a basketball in his hands. He’s also thriving this season in Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo, let-it-fly offense.
The Rockets enter Friday night’s game at 33-12, only 1½ games behind San Antonio (33-9) for the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference. Houston remains within striking distance of the Warriors (36-6), who fell to the Rockets in double overtime Dec. 1 in Oakland.
So how did these reshaped Rockets soar from a first-round playoff nuisance — the Warriors dispatched them in five
games last year — to a viable threat? Does it start with D’Antoni’s arrival, or the acquisition of long-range shooters Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon?
Warriors forward Draymond Green begins the conversation with Harden. D’Antoni shifted him from shooting guard to point guard, and now Harden leads the league in assists (11.6 per game) without sacrificing scoring (28.9 average, second behind Westbrook).
No player has led the league in both categories since Nate “Tiny” Archibald in 1972-73.
“I think the biggest thing is moving James to the point,” Green said. “He’s got the ball all the time and he’s making plays for other people. Now those moves you made all of a sudden look great.
“You’ve got Anderson standing out there firing, but the way James breaks down the defense, he (Anderson) is getting open shots. Gordon is playing the sixth-man role, but does that happen if you don’t move James to the point?
“I think they played their pieces the right way, and they’re playing really well.”
Harden is playing off-the-charts well, dueling Westbrook for the role of midseason MVP favorite. If Harden maintains this pace, he would fall just short of the career-high 29 points he averaged last season, and he would smash his previous best assists average of 7.5.
But maybe he’s taking this turbocharged Houston offense to fresh heights precisely because the Rockets acquired Anderson and Gordon, who fit D’Antoni’s system so well. Anderson, a Cal alum, is scoring 14.0 per game and Gordon provides 17.8, usually off the bench.
“I think what’s changed the most is they’ve got better players,” Warriors guard Shaun Livingston said. “I think James just took his game to a new level as far as efficiency, which is not easy to do. So give him credit where it’s due, but they’ve got better players.”
This much is clear: The Rockets are perfectly happy living beyond the threepoint arc. They easily lead the NBA in long-distance attempts, averaging 40 per game. Cleveland is next at 33.3 and the Warriors rank fifth at 30.6.
Or consider Houston’s victory over New Orleans on Dec. 16, when the Rockets took a mind-blowing, NBA-record 61 three-point shots.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr saw this coming a decade ago in the desert. D’Antoni coached the Suns from 2002 to ’08, leaving for New York in part because of philosophical differences with Kerr, who had become Phoenix’s general manager in 2007.
D’Antoni, who later flamed out with the Knicks and Lakers, enjoyed wild success with the Suns, stringing together four seasons of 54 or more victories. He also launched the revolution toward a league-wide emphasis on long-range shooting.
In many ways, that counted as the precursor to the way the Warriors and Rockets play today.
“I think the first time I really saw it was in Phoenix with Mike, and how much he embraced the three-point shot,” Kerr said. “Especially the way he did it with downsizing, eliminating the center position altogether and just playing forwards and guards and spacing everybody out.
“Mike was the real innovator who changed the way the game is played. He’s even taken it to another degree now. I don’t think I could have ever imagined a team taking 60 threes in a game.”