WORTH WATCHING
Fast start makes Rockets one of the NBA’s best stories early in the season.
First and foremost, Houston is a football town. • That’s apparent from the 15 years of Texans sellouts and the teeth gnashing on local radio following their losses, which have accumulated lately. • But if you’re a Houston sports fan tired of sleep-inducing offense and replacement-level quarterbacking, there’s another option that should keep you entertained for the next few months. • Just past the first quarter of the season, the team that calls Toyota Center home has been one of the NBA’s pleasant surprises, with a 15-7 record entering tonight’s game at Oklahoma City. • It’s far too soon to call the Rockets a championship contender, particularly in the top-heavy Western Conference. But they’ve showed us in the past two weeks that they will at least be in the mix for a playoff berth, likely in the top half of the West.
That was made evident when they went 4-1 on their recent road trip out west, highlighted by a doubleovertime win in the hostile confines of Golden State’s Oracle Arena, a house of horrors for Houston the past two seasons. That win came weeks after the Rockets won at San Antonio. That made them the first team to win at Golden State and San Antonio in the same season since 2013-14, when that year’s Rockets also did the same.
That season, of course, ended in crushing fashion in Portland with Damian Lillard’s Game 6 buzzerbeater knocking out the Rockets in the first round. The following year brought a captivating run to the West final, the team’s first since 1997 and the close of the Clutch City era.
Of course, the Rockets failed to take the next step, regressing in a 41-41 season last year that was as thoroughly mediocre as their record. They made the playoffs, only to serve as road kill for the Warriors in round one.
This year’s team, however, doesn’t much resemble the 2015-16 group that got coach Kevin McHale fired after just 11 games and spent the rest of last season playing a maddeningly inconsistent brand of basketball.
The offseason brought some needed change. Dwight Howard and his perpetual grin left after three seasons and a largely failed partnership with James Harden. Howard took his talents to his hometown of Atlanta, where the Hawks are free-falling after a hot start. Howard was posterized on a recent dunk by Oklahoma City’s Victor Oladipo, with the clip promptly going viral.
Harden was used to that last year, as clips of his indifferent defense launched thousands of Vines.
But this year, the bearded one has returned to his MVP runner-up form of 2014-15. He still ranks among the NBA’s scoring leaders, but he also is averaging nearly four more assists per game this season.
The moves to extend his contract and officially make him the team’s point guard — his de facto role in the past — have paid off, and the offseason additions of free agents Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon brought a pair of complementary pieces that can hit from long range as defenses are drawn to Harden. Throw in veteran mainstays Trevor Ariza and Pat Beverley, along with the development of recent firstround picks Clint Capela and Sam Dekker, and the Rockets have the makings of a nice rotation.
The biggest offseason move may have been the hiring of coach Mike D’Antoni. After failed stints with the Knicks and Lakers, D’Antoni’s Rockets look more like his Phoenix teams of a decade ago that helped usher in an offensive revolution.
So far, we’ve seen a more mature — and certainly crowd-pleasing — team from last year’s dysfunctional group that often crumbled when facing adversity.
How long will the good times last? D’Antoni’s Suns teams got as far as the West finals in 2005 and 2006. A D’Antoni-led squad hasn’t made it to the second round since 2007, when a Robert Horry hip check on Steve Nash and a draconian suspension ruling by David Stern deep-sixed the Suns against the Spurs.
Can these Rockets get back to that rarefied air? It’ll be tough, as Golden State and San Antonio remain the proverbial bullies on the block in the West, and any championship aspirations go through there.
But in the meantime, enjoy the ride. It figures to be entertaining.