D’Antoni opted to ignore critics in peanut gallery
Rockets 1, Warriors 1. Mike D’Antoni 1, Steve Kerr 1. Game 2 of this already fascinating Western Conference finals went to the coach who was constantly criticized by the unknowing masses from Monday night through Wednesday evening. By the end of the Rockets’ 127- 105 win at roaring Toyota Center, the 2016- 17 NBA Coach of the Year had every right to sound off.
“I don’t want to be snarky, and I don’t want to be old — well, I’ve got to be old, but I don’t want to be cantankerous,” said D’Antoni, who turned 67 on May 8.
Thus began an incredibly transparent 329- word answer — live on national TV; coachspeak and the traditional cookiecutter filter thrown in the trash — that captured D’Antoni’s self- deprecating humor, personal pride, inner fire and constant push for public selfreflection all at once.
“Golden State ( is) one of the best all- time teams. We’re trying to prove we’re up there with them. You’re not going to come in and change the way you play. That’s the way we played all year. ... We are who we are, and we had to be who we are,” D’Antoni said. “We just did it better, longer. Guys believe it, and we’re not going to change anything up. That would be silly on my part to panic. You don’t do that.
“We’re very comfortable about who we are. And we can beat anybody, anywhere, at any time playing the way we play. Some people might not like it. Hey, sorry. It might not look good to some people. But it’s effective. It’s efficient.”
D’Antoni then praised Kerr for having the Warriors play “exactly the way that team has to play.”
“He took his talent, figured it out, and they are very efficient and one of the best teams ever,” the Rockets’ coach said.
Isn’t it funny how the media has spent years praising Kerr for the same thing it blindly criticized D’Antoni for after the Rockets’ Game 1 loss?
“We as a coaching staff try to do the same thing ( as Kerr),” said D’Antoni, as his soliloquy continued. “You take what you have, you figure out what you can do, what will maximize each one of our players, try to get them career years. ... This is the best way that we play, I think. And, hey, I could be mistaken. But I obviously believe in it. And we’re going to play that and live with the results.”
Live with the results. D’Antoni has been following that belief since the early 2000s, with the Warriors ( and Rockets) 1.0. He pushed uptempo Phoenix to 62 wins in 2004- 05 and reached the Western Conference finals. A season after D’Antoni exceeded everyone’s expectations — the front office, the media, his own — and recorded 55 victories during Year 1 with the remade Rockets, he doubled down on everything in 2017- 18 and now has his team just three wins away from his first NBA Finals appearance.
Winning one home playoff game against Golden State — a victory the Rockets absolutely had to have — obviously isn’t enough. D’Antoni must continue to tweak, adjust and react ... while never overreacting.
Maybe the Warriors win the next two at Oracle Arena and close out the Rockets in five back in Houston. Maybe this goes the full seven and D’Antoni coaches the series of his life.
But it was ( what’s the word I’m looking for ... embarrassing? ... asinine?) pathetic how poorly so many in the talkinghead media misread Game 1, instantly demanding major changes that any self- respecting coach with 65 wins and the No. 1 playoff seed would never, ever make.
Had D’Antoni panicked and overreacted like all the TV and social- media geniuses insisted, last season’s Coach of the Year should have been fired on the spot.
Instead, he and the Rockets that trust him knew the truth.
“It’s about us,” James Harden said.
They had to play sharper, faster, stronger and tougher. They would still run the isolation sets that all know- it- alls loathed. But they also had to get back to being the team that powered past Minnesota in the first round, unleashing a brilliant 50- point quarter, then answered a disappointing Game 2 home loss to Utah in the second round with back- toback victories in Salt Lake City.
It was about a re- devotion to defense, a quicker offensive pace and the reintroduction of role players. It was also about playing with their hair on fire and spitting blood, as D’Antoni said between Games 1 and 2, which is how the Rockets roll when they put up 127 and hold a lesser opponent to 105.
“The first game we were at a 70. ( Wednesday) we’re at a 95,” Harden said. “We were pretty aggressive defensively. That allowed us to get out in transition. So if we’re comfortable and sit back and allow them to get to their spots and run around freely, they’re going to pick us apart. But if we get to them and try to make it tougher on them, good things will happen for us.”
Daryl Morey’s Rockets weren’t designed to replicate the Warriors. They were designed to beat the Warriors. If that’s actually going to happen in 2018, they’re adamant they’re going to do it their way.
One home victory in midMay won’t truly change anything unless the Rockets add three more wins to back it up.
As the reigning Coach of the Year often says, the reigning champs have already proved themselves — it’s the Rockets who have legacies and living history on the line.
But history already says that D’Antoni got Game 2 right.
By sticking to his guns and giving ’ em hell.