Proving contender status
With surge into middle of conference race, team believes it has established credentials
Having turned their season around, climbing into the thick of the Western Conference playoff pack and returning to Toyota Center with a long home winning streak, the Rockets could view games against the Nuggets and Bucks — the leader and secondplace team in their conferences, respectively — as a chance to show they have regained their contender status.
But they will not look at the games ahead that way. They believe they have proved it.
“I think we already showed we’re contenders,” guard Austin Rivers said. “You don’t put too
much into any game. It’s one game. We’re trying to get the best playoff seed we can possibly get. That’s the goal. That’s the only focus.”
The Rockets will return to Toyota Center after Saturday’s loss to the Blazers and the Clippers’ win Sunday in fifth in the West, 4½ games out of first and three games clear of ninth. But they bring a nine-game home win streak into the final two games of the ninegame stretch against teams with winning records (at the time) lined up after the injury to Chris Paul.
“I’m excited. We’re excited,” Rivers said. “We get the opportunity to play two of the best of the best after coming off playing the champs and a playoff team. We’re very excited about this opportunity. It’s a good opportunity to have bounce-back games.”
Injuries persist
When Paul went out, the stretch ahead seemed potentially perilous to the Rockets’ playoff chances, more so when Eric Gordon was hurt, too. Gordon is expected to miss at least one more game with his bruised right knee, but even with the loss to the Blazers, the Rockets have won 11 of 13, including six of seven since Paul’s injury.
That kept them from getting too discouraged by Saturday’s loss, or even consecutive games in which they trailed by as much as 20 to the Warriors and 16 to the Blazers. It could, however, raise the stakes on the next two games, given how tightly packed the Western Conference standings remain. Even a brief losing streak has the potential to cause a significant drop in the standings.
“Understanding these next two at home are going to be hard and being shorthanded, that’s the life in the NBA,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We’ll get our juices going again. We’ll be ready. It’s not going to be easy. It never is. We’ve got a good team in there. They’re fighters.
“They’re tough dudes. Austin’s tough and James (Harden). They have competitive juices. That’s what I like about this group. We can get there. We can get there and be really, really good.”
Despite the success in recent weeks, that will likely require a return to good health. Though the Rockets on Monday will play a team that built much of its climb to the top of the West on an ability to continue to win while short-handed, the Nuggets have gotten Paul Millsap and Gary Harris back from injuries — both came off the bench in Saturday’s win — with only Will Barton out among their core rotation players.
The Rockets had been getting enough contributions from Rivers, Danuel House Jr. and Gerald Green to ride Harden’s hot streak and withstand their injuries. But they also reduced their margin for error enough that any slip-up, from Harden’s first-half struggles Saturday to the cold shooting from the 3point line after Rivers’ hot start, is tough to overcome.
“You cut your choices by two,” D’Antoni said. “We have four or five (shooters). If a couple guys don’t do it, we don’t have the reserves.”
Challenging schedule
Still, the Rockets have insisted they expect to win even without their two top perimeter scorers next to Harden. They were not surprised by the win at Golden State or the winning streak at home. Even with the schedule getting tougher, they could consider the loss to the Blazers an aberration, with the games ahead a chance to prove it.
“We won a lot of games,” forward P.J. Tucker said. “Finally got it rolling, everybody playing well. Tough loss (to the Blazers), but we’ll get ready for the next one. We have a tough one at home against Denver.”
A few lottery-bound foes might be welcome, but the Rockets — with no choice regarding their schedule — chose to prefer the challenges waiting for them.
The Rockets are 13-7 against teams with .500 or better records, 12-3 after their stumbling start to the season when Paul and then Harden were out. But as they hit the season’s midpoint this week, struggling to keep a rotation together, they face a pair of games with potential to make the loss in Portland the exception in their recent run.
“Top teams — two of the top teams in the league. It’s going to be a great challenge,” center Clint Capela said. “I’m definitely excited to play against those teams.”