Star power
The Thunder and Rockets have had very different experiences with off-season roster changes.
HOUSTON — James Harden had options.
On a possession last month in Oklahoma City, the Rockets guard got a step on Thunder defender Corey Brewer.
In front of Harden, Steven Adams was deep in the paint.
To Harden’s left, Carmelo Anthony was sagging off Luc Mbah a Mute, a 3-point threat Harden could hit with a pass. Another shooter, Eric Gordon, was available in the corner.
Harden swished a floater.
But his sheer number of choices was telling.
When the NBA season began, the Thunder’s game against the Rockets on Saturday was worth circling, a potential matchup between highpowered teams fighting for high playoff seeds.
Instead, the combination of Harden and Chris Paul has been a hit in Houston, while Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony so often have misfired in Oklahoma City.
The Rockets’ offense isn’t the only reason, but it’s a big one.
And though there are complicated explanations for why the Rockets have clicked and the Thunder hasn’t, the offensive answer is relatively simple.
“It starts with the shooting,” ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said.
The Rockets added Paul in the offseason and the Thunder restructured with George and Anthony, and the risk for both teams was the same, adding highlevel players who, like the established stars they were joining, play best with the ball in their hands, generating shots for themselves or others.
But the Rockets have thrived in isolation plays — those in which teams spread their offensive players to create a oneon-one opportunity for the man with the ball — while the Thunder has struggled.
Houston leads the NBA in isolation possessions at 15.4 per game. The Thunder ranks second at 12.1.
Houston, though, is the league’s most efficient isolation team, averaging 1.13 points per iso possession. The Thunder’s 0.86 ranks 18th.
Harden leads the league at 9.6 isolation possessions per game, and the Rockets score 1.24 points per possession on those plays. Westbrook gets 5.1 isolation attempts per game, on which OKC scores 0.85 points per possession.
The explanation, TNT analyst Brent Barry said, starts with all those options Harden has.
The Rockets have five players shooting 37 percent or better on at least 3.6 catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts per game. Often when Harden has the ball, it positions shooters like Paul, Gordon or Ryan Anderson several steps behind the 3-point line.
If defenders leave to help on Harden, he has an easy
pass to a 3-point shooter. So often, defenses stay at home, giving Harden — or Paul, when he’s running the offense — room to operate.
“That’s something that, quite frankly, OKC doesn’t have,” Barry said. “Really the only guy you feel threatened by is Paul George. And I don’t think I’ve ever qualified Paul as an elite 3-point shooter.”
The hope was that Anthony would provide deadeye shooting to help spread the floor for Westbrook, and he’s been fine in that role, shooting 37.3 percent on catch-andshoot 3-pointers.
But the Thunder always has started a perimeter player — Andre Roberson before a season-ending injury, and Corey Brewer now — “who isn’t a range shooter,” Van Gundy said.
That allows a defense to employ zone principles on certain plays, crowding Westbrook’s area if he gets by his initial defender in a way Rockets opponents can’t against Harden.
“The only thing that prevents that zoning up is your shooting, when they fear the 3 as much as they fear your isolation,” Van Gundy said. “When you’re Oklahoma City, you can’t generate that same fear.”
The Rockets lead the NBA in 3-pointers per game made (15.4) and
attempted (42.3). The Thunder ranks 15th in makes (10.6) and 11th in attempts (30.1). OKC scores 29.6 percent of its points off 3-pointers compared to Houston’s league-leading 40.8 percent.
Part of what makes Houston’s 3-point attack so efficient is that both of its primary ballhandlers, Harden and Paul, are significant threats from behind the line. Harden hits 36.6 percent of his 3-pointers and makes 3.7 per game. Paul hits 37.9 percent and makes 2.5 a game.
Westbrook is averaging 1.2 3-pointers per game and shooting 29.7 percent from long range.
Where Harden employs both pull-up and stepback 3-point shots, Westbrook is trying to get to what Barry calls “his comfy blanket spot” for a midrange jumper or “create some sort of contact or havoc at the rim.”
That works for Westbrook. But his own lack of outside shooting — and the personnel around him — means he doesn’t have Harden’s options.
“We could watch 10 sets of Russell on an island and James on an island and see the difference in the space around them,” Barry said. “And it’s hard to convey to people what 2 more feet of space allows elite offensive players to do with the basketball.”