Completeness as big as win over champs
With suspensions of Ariza and Green served, D’Antoni finally has a roster at full strength
For a team so open about its obsession with beating the Warriors, the Rockets sure changed the subject quickly.
The Rockets enjoyed Saturday night’s 116-108 victory over the NBA champions and all it represented, but they did not savor it. They were ready to declare they have either closed the gap or, in some cases, proclaim they have erased it.
But they seemed every bit as enthused about crossing the line from short-handed to full strength.
The last time the Rockets were whole, they had won 14 consecutive games and owned the NBA’s best record.
Since that winning streak, the Rockets spent three games without Chris Paul, seven without James Harden, and 15 without Luc Mbah a Moute. Even when the Rockets thought they were ready to get the band back together, Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green ventured too far into the wrong locker room and were benched with two-game suspensions.
The Rockets’ win over Golden State was impressive. But they seemed every bit as enthused about everything the return of the final two missing pieces indicates about what could come
next.
“We can get better,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “James is not there — yet — getting his wind and minutes and all that. We’ll get our two guys back and make a run for it.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We won a game. ‘Yaaaaay.’ That’s it. Now we need to get better and better. We’ve proven we have something there. Now it’s up to us to do something.”
After nearly a month shorthanded and most of three weeks just trying to hold on until rotation players were healthy and available, the Rockets viewed Saturday as a start to whatever run they can put together now that they will not be held back by
what was missing.
“Trevor will be back and Gerald, so we will have normal rotations, and guys will be fresher,” D’Antoni said. “We need to make a run now and get to the AllStar break and keep getting better.”
Measuring the minutes
D’Antoni will have some challenging juggling to do if he is to extend his rotation beyond the nine players he used when the team was last at full strength to 10 with the addition of Green. He can continue to rotate Harden, Paul and Eric Gordon, keeping Harden to 34 minutes, Paul to 32 and Gordon to 30, with an extra few minutes when all three play together. Ariza and Mbah a Moute can split the remainder of the 48 minutes at small forward, with Ryan Anderson and P.J. Tucker doing the same at power forward. Both can pick up a few extra minutes at center in small lineups, spelling Clint Capela and Nene. Mbah a Moute or Ariza can get extra playing time at power forward.
All of that, however, does not include Green, who provided an important boost of scoring when Harden was out and can be valuable enough to merit playing time.
Squeezing him in would reduce court time of players D’Antoni considers starters, whether they actually start.
That does not even include the question of who finishes games.
That depth will be welcome after weeks without it. It could be especially important against Golden State should the teams meet in the postseason. The benches of the Rockets and Warriors are tied for the best net rating in the NBA. Yet when the Rockets repeatedly cited the reinforcements on the way, they pointed to the three weeks and 13 games before the All Star break, rather than the postseason.
They had insisted that facing the Warriors amounted to just another game, though Harden admitted it was “important” in the standings and for confidence. But even in the standings, it meant more than another win because it brought the tiebreaker advantage to the winner. The idea in the buildup that it was no more significant was that playing in showcase showdowns was for them as much business as usual as it is for the Warriors.
“For us, this is another game,” Tucker said. “We still don’t have our full team back. I feel like we always are missing somebody, and everybody stepped up a little bit in Trevor’s and Gerald’s absence. Everything is fluctuating right now because of personnel. But I think the biggest thing is getting our whole team back together and getting that chemistry back with our different lineups with Coach and how he’s (going to handle) rotations.”
Confidence buoyed
Until then, the Rockets will reconvene at Toyota Center on Monday with the locker room and rotation finally full and with whatever benefit can come from a signature win.
“We’re confident,” Harden said before pivoting to theme of the weekend. “We’re just a confident group, especially with everybody healthy. We get Trevor and Gerald back, then we have a strong rotation to where we’re very versatile. Obviously, they’re a championshipcaliber team for the past four years. That’s what we’re trying to build our way up to.
“I keep saying Trevor and Gerald because they’re such a key part to this team. Once we get those guys back on Monday, we finally have our full team, hopefully heading into the All-Star break.”