Stopping Curry starts with Rockets’ work-in-progress guards
Why is Ty Lawson a Rocket? Why is Pat Beverley a backup?
Why was Daryl Morey’s biggest, riskiest offseason move devoted to a single position and a radical idea? All because of Stephen Curry. The NBA MVP. The Warrior with a golden touch. The absolutely electric point man who nightly lit up the Rockets as a one-man show and shot Morey’s 2014-15 creation out of the Western Conference finals.
So now it’s Lawson and Beverley as a two-man wrecking crew. And with the Rockets tipping off a new season Friday on national TV against the reigning league champs — let’s just forget Wednesday’s horrific dud of 105-85 Denver was ever played, please — we’ll finally get to see what happens when Ty and Pat dig in, chomp down and tear apart tiny, little Steph. Yeah, probably not. Lawson rolled with training wheels against the Nuggets, outplayed by 19-year-old rookie Emmanuel Mudiay and 33-yearold veteran Jameer Nelson. Beverley showed some teeth but was 3-of-9 from the floor and 2-of-7 on the Rockets’ favorite shot — 3-pointers. Morey’s 2015-16 answer to the unsinkable Curry and the conference’s legion of sharpshooting point guards was on a self-imposed first-night leash, with the whole Lawson-Beverley thing clearly being a serious work in progress.
James Harden is the Rockets. Dwight Howard again will lift or limit them. But Kevin
McHale’s squad won’t even be in sight of the top four in the West if Lawson doesn’t rapidly accelerate his learning curve and Beverley can’t push the team’s new floor general.
“It starts with me and Ty. We’re ready for that,” Beverley said Thursday after practice at Toyota Center.
They were supposed to be laced up for game one. But a team loved for the brilliance of its blur was a walking snooze button Wednesday, with the ball sticking, sets stagnating and the theory that near-MVP Harden can play off the rock-in-hand Lawson producing a night-one failure.
McHale looked like his dog and best friend had died post-Nuggets at the podium.
“They beat the hell out of us,” McHale said.
‘It starts with you’
Jason Terry, the wisest man in red, was forced to preach the morning after to the Rockets’ point men. Terry’s message: We can’t do anything without you. We’re not going anywhere if you don’t lead.
“What I told them: They’re the head. It starts with you out front,” Terry said. “It’s not like it’s just me out there anymore. We got two of y’all. Exert yourself. Go beyond your limits, because you’ve got another guy who can come in and do the same thing.”
When the cylinder clicks, it’s going to be “scary,” Beverley said.
The West won’t wait, though. And Curry never stops.
The one dribbler in the world who had every excuse to start slow — he was a little busy last summer — was again the best player in the league on opening night. Forty points on 14-of-26 shooting, 5-of-12 on 3s, seven assists, six rebounds, two steals and the 1-0 Warriors already in his back pocket.
Speaking of the 0-1 Rockets finally stopping the small guy …
“Curry needed someone to go back at him,” Lawson recently told Yahoo Sports. “I thought Steph was just chillin’ on defense and then going crazy on offense. He looked like he was just putting shots up and not working so much on the defensive end.”
Curry’s version of trash-talking this week: “We had great success against them. … The only thing is, I’ll have to play defense this year.” Ooooh. It’s on. Supposedly. Lawson’s a bullet when right. He’s a match, spark and fire all in one possession, turning just 5 feet and 11 inches into two of the quickest points you’ve ever seen.
Beverley’s simply a wolverine. His eight boards in 21-plus minutes Wednesday were proof of his bite.
But the double bill produced only six makes on 19 takes against Denver, the Rockets were an absolutely abysmal 30of-87 and Lawson’s baby steps confirmed McHale’s preseason worries.
Chemistry concerns
Talent is never a question in the NBA. Chemistry, commitment and a five-man connection always are.
No one thinks Lawson isn’t going to work. But players already are asking for patience, while coaches can’t help but see a stalled attack.
“Ty is an ideal system fit. … That’s something that we’ve missed, is another guy who can break down the defense and create shots all by himself,” Rockets assistant Chris Finch said. “The danger is that we still stay within the things that we want to do and we’ve deviated from that a bit here early on.”
The Warriors didn’t look back in May. Curry kept splashing, soaring and flying. Five months after being three wins from the Finals, it still comes down to one point for the Rockets.
Stopping Steph.