Win streak at long last
Hint of potential demonstrated in stingy 3rd period
CHICAGO — For all that there was best forgotten, or at least taken as lessons to be learned without the pain of the loss, the Rockets’ 96-88 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday will not be lost in the blur of a long season they hope brings far greater accomplishments.
Mike D’Antoni offered a harsher critique than he had after the run of lopsided losses. Carmelo Anthony spoke of needing to finish better. James Harden, in his first game back after missing three with a strained hamstring, pointed to his turnovers and kinks needed to be worked out.
Yet, amid all that, there was a stretch in which the Rockets put themselves in the franchise record book.
For 12 remarkable thirdquarter minutes, the Rockets applied defensive clamps, taking over even more thoroughly than they turned around the game the night before in Brooklyn.
The Bulls made just two of 17 shots in the third quarter, scoring seven points. That was one more than the SuperSonics scored in a third quarter against the Rockets in 2005 and the Pelicans put up in a quarter in 2012.
Though the Bulls, and especially guards Zach LaVine and Cameron Payne, missed shots at the rim, and Antonio Blakeney, one of the league’s hottest early-season shooters, missed from everywhere, the Rockets also dramatically tightened their defense every bit as thoroughly as they had to run past the Nets.
“We got into them,” D’Antoni said. “We got to guard a man. I don’t care what scheme we have. The guys weren’t getting them. They were doing whatever they wanted to do, taking those midrange without any kind of resistance. They talked about it. We have a great group, but urgency has got to be up a little bit.
“We dug ourselves a hole, thought they were going to hand us stuff. Nobody’s going to hand us anything, We got to work harder.”
When they did, the Bulls went from making 64.7 percent of their shots in the second quarter to 11.8 percent in the third.
Less clear was whether the Rockets should be encouraged that they can defend that well or concerned that they only do in spurts.
“We’ll take it for what it is right now,” said Anthony, who had 17 points off the bench. “Any time you can take it up another level coming out of halftime, that’s always key. To start the third quarter, to get some momentum, the past two games, we’ve been doing that. The good team, the great teams are very good coming out of halftime. The past two games, we’ve showed how good we can be.”
The revival of the defense was not the only way they offered only glimpses. Harden did not score until less than four minutes were left in the first half. Paul did not score until the fourth quarter. But both had bursts that keyed runs, with Harden putting in three 3-pointers in the third quarter on his way to 25 points and Paul hitting a pair of shots to take the lead to 17 in the fourth quarter before his jumper sealed the win in the closing minutes.
The rest of the night, however, the Rockets needed the scoring of James Ennis III and off the bench from Anthony to give their stars time to come around.
Even then, the Rockets eased up so badly in the fourth quarter the Bulls closed to within six.
“We’ll learn from it,” D’Antoni said. “But we have three hard road games (at Indianapolis, Oklahoma City and San Antonio) coming up. If we play like this, we’ll be in trouble.”
They did move a step closer to being whole. Eric Gordon was out with a sore right leg, but is dayto-day. Harden and Ennis seem over their hamstring issues. The Rockets played well in stretches, but playing that well defensively, even in bursts, was better than not at all.
“We played pretty well,” Paul said. “We played good enough to win. It was good to see James get going. For us, it’s about building, but we got to pile up some wins. Regardless of how it looks right now, we got to get some marks in the left column.”
They got that, and a mention in the record book. That would do for now.