Time to be control freak
Charlotte opens with 20-0 run to send Harden and Co. to a third straight loss
Rockets will only go as far as James Harden takes them.
CHARLOTTE — The Rockets had thought they had gotten off to a bad start when they trailed the Celtics by 17. They were certain when they fell behind by 17 in the second quarter on the way to a 21-point deficit against the Knicks. There was doubt remaining when the Clippers led by 26 in the first half and would clear the benches when the lead reached 30.
Those were terrible starts. Saturday’s was worse; remarkably shockingly worse.
The Rockets dug their now familiar hole so rapidly against the Hornets on Saturday, they had eight turnovers — matching their most in an opening quarter this season — before they had a point. They not only got their double-digit lead quickly out of the way, they trailed 20-0 in less than seven minutes and never entirely recovered, falling to the Hornets 108-99 for their thirdconsecutive defeat.
“It was — I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never experienced that before,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Twenty to nothing, that’s a big deficit to overcome. For whatever reason when we did attack, we turned it over. It was kind of weird.”
As much as struggling to shake off the lethargy that led to the previous slow starts, the Rockets seemed initially befuddled with how to attack — or even if they could attack — the box-and-one defense that the Hornets used to engulf James Harden.
They had turnovers on their first three possessions, missed a pair of 3s, then had three more turnovers, all in the first 3½ minutes of the game.
With Russell Westbrook sitting out the first game of the back-toback and Eric Gordon unavailable because of a sore right knee, the Hornets put a big man on Harden on the perimeter, zoned behind him and then swarmed when he entered the lane.
Harden eventually moved the ball enough to match his seasonhigh with 14 assists. He found enough cracks in the zone to score 30 points. With 10 rebounds he had his fourth triple double of the season. But he also relied heavily on step-back 3pointers over the crowds of defenders, making just 2 of 11 attempts and falling to 9 of 61 on 3s in his past four games.
His 10 turnovers were one shy of his season high. In the first 14 games with their center-less lineup, the Rockets had averaged 12.2 turnovers per game, the fourth-fewest in the NBA in that stretch. On Saturday, they had
21.
“When you’re indecisive and you’re not full of the swagger and confidence and you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you hesitate,” D’Antoni said. “And they were active. They did their part. But most of it was just indecisiveness.”
The Rockets have often succeeded against similar defenses. When Westbrook began to roll by using the spacing of the range-shooting lineup to attack the rim, teams stopped trapping Harden the way the Hornets did so effectively.
Asked what was lacking on Saturday, Harden said, Threes, attacking the basket and trying to make smart decisions. We didn't do enough of that."
When they did, the Rockets rallied back into the game. They were within three in the second quarter. After trailing by 16 in the third quarter, they closed to within five. But the Hornets had gotten off to such a strong start, they were able to answer each Rockets’ run with one of their own, with guards Devonte Graham and Terry Rozier combining for 47 points.
A team that makes 34.7 percent of its 3-pointers, ranking 24th in the NBA, hit 15 of 32 (46.9 percent), surging through the final minutes as the Rockets fell to 0-4 when falling short of 100 points.
Still, the Rockets knew their greatest issue was not with how they finished, but how they started.
“They jumped on us early and we were playing catch up from the very beginning," Robert Covington said. “They just came out with a different energy. They came out and knew how they wanted to play, and they actually started the game really well."
The Rockets started as they have in each of their past four games, this time also collapsing against a well-executed defensive scheme, but with many of the familiar issues.
“We’ve seen all kinds of defenses,” D’Antoni said. “That has not been the problem. You’ve got to attack it. But no excuse, they played well, they beat us. We’re having a hard time righting the ship right now, but tomorrow’s a good time to start.”