Rotation to see adjustments
Not knowing the new guy well enough to trust his own judgment, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni told Austin Rivers to let him know when he might need a break. D’Antoni could not have known there was no chance that would happen.
He knows now. He also knows there is a good chance Rivers will be piling on more minutes Monday when the Rockets host the Grizzlies. Eric Gordon is the latest Rockets guard out with an injury.
“I told him, ‘Look, I don’t know you. When you get tired, be sure to tell me,’ ” D’Antoni said. “He just looked at me and said, ‘I love to play.’ ”
The extra duty comes when Rivers had seemed to solidify the bench in his three games since signing. He was acquired to help fill in for Chris Paul, who is out with a strained hamstring. Now Gordon will miss Monday’s game with a bruised right knee and is considered day-to-day for the road trip to Golden State and Portland.
Second unit thrives
With Rivers, Gerald Green and Nene joining starters Danuel House Jr. and Gordon, the second unit that struggled so badly several weeks ago has been among the keys to the Rockets’ turnaround, especially in the past two games as they expanded leads in wins over the Celtics and Pelicans.
“It was crucial last year when we won 65 games. It’s crucial this year,” D’Antoni said of his bench. “That’s what we’ve been missing. Now with Austin, pretty soon we’ll get Chris and James Ennis back — it’s going to be good.”
The Rockets rank last in the NBA in bench scoring this season and in their 10game turnaround. But that is misleading with Paul starting but also serving as backup point guard. That job fell to Gordon with Paul out, with Gordon delivering a strong four-game run. With Gordon out, Rivers will assume those duties.
By the time Gordon limped to the locker room Saturday, James Harden was back in. Monday, and possibly in the games to follow, Rivers will be the primary playmaker for the second unit, often joined in the backcourt by Brandon Knight, recalled from the G League on Sunday.
Rivers ready to go
“I can just tell you I’ll be ready to play, have fun and compete,” said Rivers, who played a team-high 37 minutes Saturday. “Obviously, with Eric being out, we’re going to need more guys to step up to help James out.
“I’ve played point guard the last couple years. There’s really no difference. I was point guard last year for L.A. Me and Eric have been switching off with that second unit, so there’s no problem. It’s all reads, man. If we continue to play the defense we’ve been playing, we get to just run the floor and make plays.”
But the latest changes come when the Rockets seemed to have settled on a workable rotation without Paul. Rivers and Green had been checking in roughly six minutes into each half for Gordon and House. Gordon returns to replace Harden. House comes back in for P.J. Tucker at power forward.
“It helps a lot,” Green said of D’Antoni’s tendency to find and stick to a rotation. “It helps the players get kind of locked in, get loose. It helps me out.”
Gordon averaged 36.7 minutes in the first three games Paul missed. That’s a lot of time to spread among Knight, Green, Rivers and House.
The latest change will also be the second in less than two weeks at point guard. For the Rockets, with few play calls outside of out-of-bounds plays, the next playmaker can step in more quickly, but changes at the point tend to impact everyone on the floor.
The depth will come
“It’s tough, but within our offense, we just kind of just play,” Green said. “It’s not like he has to go out there and call a bunch of sets. We kind of just play our style of basketball, and things will flow. Make the extra pass, be aggressive, take the open shots, D up. We should be cool.”
The Rockets expect to be deeper than before the injuries. Though D’Antoni has often stuck with eightman rotations, he would go 10 deep if that many can stay healthy.
“It’s good. We can still shave some minutes off people,” D’Antoni said. “The more bodies you have, the better it’s going to be. We’ll get James Ennis back and Chris back and Eric back. If it can stay that way for a while, it will be great. Rotations will change. We’ll have to figure that out.”
It will be a nice problem to have. For now, just when the Rockets believed their second unit was coming together, even with the absence of Paul, they must adjust.
“It’s been huge just to have multiple guys step up,” Rivers said. “It seems like every night we have a consistent group of guys at least contributing. Obviously, James does the heavy lifting every night. It’s our job to accompany him the best we can.”