Thunder falls to Rockets
OKC didn’t find a win at home, losing to Houston 122-112.
Russell Westbrook dumped a pass into the paint for Steven Adams. A routine play. A simple exchange.
But on Tuesday night against the Rockets, nothing was routine or simple for the Thunder on the offensive end. James Harden anticipated the pass and got a finger on the ball. It disrupted the play, and a few moments later, it resulted in a turnover.
The look on Westbrook’s face was frustration, sure, but also resignation.
This, his look seemed to say, is what the Rockets have become — the hottest team in basketball because of a dogged defense that complements a potent offense.
Rockets 122, Thunder 112.
“Their defense has really taken a big jump,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think their defense is really good.”
That might be underselling it.
The Thunder didn’t score any points in the paint for the first 18 minutes, 41 seconds of the game. Not until Westbrook put his head down and bulled his way to the basket with 5:19 left in the second quarter did OKC notch a basket in the paint.
Worse, Adams managed only one shot before halftime. That pickand-roll between Adams and Westbrook that is smoother than butter? It was rarely available
because when Westbrook would go looking for his big man, there were Rocket hands and arms and legs in the way. It limited Adams’ shots and upped Westbrook’s turnovers.
He had six in the first half alone.
When the Rockets made big offseason moves, it sure seemed like they would be a bit more suspect defensively.
Of course, when the Thunder made big offseason moves, it sure seemed like it would become an improved defensive team. The opposite happened. When the Rockets traded for Chris Paul in July, they got better offensively — if that was even possible — but defensively? They sent away Patrick Beverley, the defensive specialist who sometimes seemed like the only Rocket interested
in locking down the perimeter last season.
“We did lose a Doberman in Pat Beverley — he was great — but we replaced him,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said mentioning P.J. Tucker, Luc Mbah a Moute and Paul. “We’re gonna score and we knew that. The only way we could get over the hump was to be deeper and stronger defensively.”
The Rockets play a physical style of defense that we haven’t seen from them recently. Not even earlier this season when they came to town.
They weren’t playing defense then like they are now.
“They’ve taken it to a different level from where it was at the beginning of the year,” D’Antoni said. “They’ve gotten better at it.”
It isn’t perfect, of course. The Rockets had breakdowns Tuesday night, most notably late in the game when they’d largely put the game out
of hand. But when they were building their lead, it was as much as stops on defense as buckets on offense.
The Rockets are solid. The Thunder is searching.
Now, some of that is due to the loss of Andre Roberson. Everyone now sees and understands how important he is and has been for the Thunder.
But even with Roberson’s season-ending injury, the defensive versatility that we expected to see with the additions of Paul George and Patrick Patterson and even newbie Corey Brewer hasn’t materialized.
Tuesday night, the Thunder defense was in scramble mode so regularly that it felt like OKC’s base defense. Yes, Houston’s offense can leave a team discombobulated, but how many drives to the basket did we see? How many wideopen threes? How many uncontested looks?
“Regardless of what a
team does, we’ve been successful when we’ve stuck to what we do best,” Thunder vet Carmelo Anthony said. “When we help each other. When we communicate. When we’re executing our defensive schemes, that’s when we’re effective.”
That doesn’t happen with the frequency that it should 66 games into the season.
Houston has what OKC wishes it had — reliable defense.
Yes, the Rockets have a transcendent offense, but they have the best record in the league and have tied the longest winning streak of this NBA season because of a stout defense that should be the envy of lots of teams, including the one in OKC.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman. com. Like her at facebook. com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/ jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.