Rockets scramble to make up lost ground
Slow start to the season could prove very costly
HOUSTON— It’s difficult for an NBA team to dig out from a bad start, as the margin for error gets slimmer and slimmer as the regular season progresses.
Look no further than the Houston Rockets for proof.
The Rockets, losers of three straight prior to Friday’s game with the Toronto Raptors, have been unable to recover from a brutal start to the season, a month that set them so far back they cannot afford even a small stumble now.
It is why coaches repeatedly preach that games in November and December are as important as those in March and April, and that early-season chemistry and success are vital.
Coming off an appearance in the Western Conference final a season ago, the Rockets seemed poised to be legitimate challengers to the Golden State Warriors again.
They had a formidable one-two punch in James Harden and Dwight Howard, added point guard Ty Lawson, and still had proven complementary players like Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza. They had every reason to be optimistic.
A 5-10 start — coach Kevin McHale was fired mid-November with the team 4-7 and sinking fast — is the primary reason the Rockets today are chasing Utah, Dallas and Portland for the final three Western Conference playoff spots.
“There is no time in the West,” general manager Daryl Morey said when he fired McHale on Nov. 19, elevating J.B. Bickerstaff to the head coaching position.
Today, those words ring particularly prescient.
Yes, back-to-back last-possession losses to Oklahoma City and Utah this week were crushing. Being beaten by the Thunder on another Russell Westbrook triple-double on the road is one thing, but blowing an 18-point lead at home against Utah and losing on a blown last-second defensive play that allowed a gamewinning Derrick Favors dunk is quite another.
“It’s tough coming off the road trip losing two tough ones, then coming home and losing another tough one,” was how Harden put it.
But those current mishaps are just continued payment for the sins committed by the Rockets early in the season, when they seemed incapable of finding the chemistry they had during their run to the conference final just about eight months ago.
The Rockets may very well scrape into the final playoff spot in the West — the Jazz are more unproven in the taut final weeks of a regular season — but all that would do is set up a firstround series with either Golden State or San Antonio and that’s hardly a reason for Rocket fans to get excited.
But either way, fans are likely to point to this week as when the season truly went south; the truth is the trouble of the first month was just too deep to get out of.