Hijacking the league’s attention
Big-game treatment in hostile arenas comes with having NBA’s best record
The Rockets know what is coming.
Like a long, tough workout, they might not relish the experience, but by now, they have a good idea what is good for them.
They get the big-game treatment every night, especially on the road. That comes with holding the NBA’s best record for as long as they have.
The Warriors and Cavaliers, with recent championships earning their reputations, and the sense of occasion that comes with them when they get to town, have gotten that for years.
In Oklahoma City on Tuesday
night, where the Rockets played a pair of playoff games last season, they know the now-familiar emotions (and volume) and another national television spotlight will crank up for the occasion.
For a team with aspirations to move on to bigger and better things than a Tuesday night in March, each dress rehearsal for what comes next has value.
“That type of atmosphere, it’s always petty loud in there, great fan base, it’ll be great, a lot of energy in that building,” James Harden said Monday. “It’ll prepare us for what we’re heading towards.
“For us, it’s an opportunity to get better and figure this whole thing out.
“Last game was a close game. It was a great test for us, just figuring out ways to close games out.
“Same thing tomorrow night.”
Winning the race with the Warriors for the Western Conference’s top seed and the NBA’s best record might benefit from a softer schedule. The Warriors, who trail the Rockets by half a game, have the easier path based on strength of schedule in the final 40 days before the playoffs.
Answer the challenges
But the Rockets decided a particularly tough road trip to Oklahoma City, Milwaukee (in the second half of a back-to-back) and Toronto will be beneficial in an eat your vegetables sort of way.
“It’s real good,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It keeps everybody focused. It’s important. It adds one more thing.
“Yeah, we’ll get up. Those are fun games to play. Without a doubt, we’ll get most people’s A games right now.”
At the point of the season when the playoffs are enough in sight to pull attention away from the games at hand, the Rockets have cited the pursuit of the best record as a shortterm goal.
But other than that, they would seem to have reached the grind portion of the season.
They are virtually assured the first or second seed. The Rockets (49-13) need only to split their remaining 20 games to have the best record in franchise history. They said even the winning streak, at 15 games to rank tied for the second longest in Rockets history and in the NBA this season, does not get much conversation.
But the idea of taking the best shot from strong opponents and doing it on a national stage with the attention increasing with every win inspires.
“I haven’t been on a team like this where everybody is looking forward to every game, they’re playing well,” guard Eric Gordon
said. “Everybody wants to play for each other. This is the best team I’ve been on.
“We like nationally televised games, for sure, because we have a fun style of play, a lot of talented guys. We definitely want to be showcased as the best team. Now, we have that chance. It’s very fun to play against tough teams, prime-time games. There’s things we can work on to get better at to continue to thrive and show what we’re made of.”
Payback time
The game will also be the third stop on the payback portion of the schedule. They had lost their previous games against the Clippers and Celtics before beating them in the past two games. The Rockets lost in their only meetings with Oklahoma City and Friday’s opponent, Toronto.
But as with the previous games against the Clippers and Celtics, Chris Paul was out for those losses.
“Obviously having Chris back — this is the first time he’s going to play against Oklahoma City this year — it will be good for us,” Harden said.
The Rockets dropped that Christmas Day game in Oklahoma City. The Thunder and Rockets have split their past eight regular-season games and last season’s playoff games in Oklahoma City.
Thunder will bring best
But as short-handed as the Rockets have been through most of the season, and will be again with Joe Johnson, Ryan Anderson and Brandan Wright out, the Rockets are 32-1 when Harden, Paul and Clint Capela play.
The Thunder have been far more inconsistent, but as with their other road games in recent weeks, the Rockets expect the history, spotlight and their growing reputation to bring out the Thunder’s best in another of the sort of tests the Rockets believe is good for them.
“In a way it is. Every game is big, right?” Luc Mbah a Moute said. “It’s even bigger.
“But for us, we always say, it’s about us. It’s about us getting better defensively, getting on the same page on offense. We feel like we can play against anybody. If we play good defense and we’re clicking on offense, we’re hard to beat.”