Harden back in action
Star displays rust in return from injured hamstring, but others shine
Eric Gordon did not dance. He did not shimmy. He barely kind of pumped a fist, fighting back a smile. He had just banked in a running 50-footer and acted as impassively as if Blake Griffin had fired another fastball to his shoulder blades.
The Rockets had treated much of the game with the same steely determination. There were a few celebrations along the way. James Harden, having made his return after missing seven games with a strained hamstring, highstepped around the floor after Gordon’s bomb. But as ragged as the Rockets were to open the game, and as rusty as Harden clearly was, they acted as if it was expected all along when they pulled away.
The backcourt that had filled in when Harden was out — Gordon and Chris Paul — did what they had been doing when he came back, carrying the Rockets’ offense past the Timberwolves 116-98 on Thursday night at Toyota Center. But the Rockets also defended and competed harder, with a sense that with one more game spent serving suspensions — against the Warriors on Saturday — they will at last be whole.
“We can be really good,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It’s all in the locker room. We can do it. Now whether we do it or not, that’s the test, and we’ll see.
“It’s just a matter, can we get the same mentality when we get everybody together? Can we defend and have a force that’s championship level? We’ll see.”
Much as the Rockets were buoyed when Paul returned from 14 games lost to a bruised knee, taking off with a 90-point first half to start a 14-game winning
streak, the Rockets said they were uplifted to have the gym filled with able-bodied teammates at Wednesday’s practice. They lost Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green to two-game suspensions between the practice and game but played with the tenacity that had been missing in Los Angeles, allowing them to get past their early offensive issues and Harden’s wayward shot.
For the first time this season, Harden failed to score 20 points, making just three of 15 shots in his 26 minutes. But he moved well and had seven assists, two steals, two blocked shots and no complaints.
“It felt good to be back on the court, the atmosphere and dribbling the basketball,” Harden said. “Those seven (games) felt like an extremely long time. The feeling and the vibe was great. Other than missing a lot of shots I normally make, I felt like I was active, especially defensively. I just tried creating opportunities.”
D’Antoni said Harden’s displeasure with his minutes restriction left him wary that he would get “bumped again.” Harden went a step further.
“He almost got tackled tonight,” Harden said. “But he just did his job. We have the best training staff in the league by far. You have to listen sometimes.”
While Harden struggled with his shot, however, the Rockets around him found theirs. They had made just four of 15 shots to start the game. With three minutes left in the first quarter, they were just 2-of-11 from the 3-point line. But they defended well enough that the Timberwolves’ largest lead was just four. When Gordon began to roll late in the first quarter and Paul in the second, the Rockets’ offense caught up to its defense, a role reversal that before Thursday seemed as unlikely as Houston’s being chillier at game time than Minneapolis.
Against the third-ranked offense in the NBA, the Rockets moved to 22-4 when holding an opponent shy of 110 points, 14-2 when keeping teams to fewer than 100.
With Ariza and Green out, Luc Mbah a Moute started in just his second game back from a month out with a dislocated shoulder, scoring 14 points to match his second most this season. Nene returned from a bruised knee and had 12 points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes. Even with their fourth- and fifthleading scorers this month out, the Rockets’ bench outscored the Timberwolves’ 47-22, moving to 11-2 when the second unit outscores that of an opponent.
Most of all, Gordon and Paul dominated, with the Rockets outscoring the Wolves by 23 points in their 35 minutes each on the floor. Paul had 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds to nearly match his averages (22.4 points, 9.7 assists and 7.1 rebounds) while Harden was out. Gordon had 30 points for the third time in his past seven games, hitting seven of 13 3-pointers, including the one from in front of the midcourt TNT table that he said he knew would go in.
“When I shot it, I thought it was going to go in somehow,” Gordon said. “It looked good from that distance.”
He might have expected even that shot to fall, but it likely is not going to be part of the Rockets’ blueprint. The rest of the Rockets’ improvement on Thursday, however, will be.