Busting a slump
Bid to reverse blowout in Miami fizzles, but issues are addressed
» The Rockets beat the Heat 117-108 to end a three-game losing streak and avenge a loss in Miami.
Asked what he could glean from the Rockets’ previous game against the Heat, the game they fell behind 26-4 before Miami fans got comfortable and trailed by 42 early in the second quarter, coach Mike D’Antoni was stumped.
“Against who?” D’Antoni said. “What game? What game? I don’t remember that game.”
Yeah, he did. The Rockets could not possibly have forgotten. But more than seek to avenge the Heatdown they took that day, they needed to turn around a three-game slide and the issues that led to it.
The 117-108 win Wednesday night against the Heat might not have been an answer to the blowout the Rockets stumbled through in Miami, but it was a reasonable facsimile, with the Rockets leading by 25 before slowing down in the fourth quarter.
Things got tight in the fourth quarter when the Heat, playing without an ill Jimmy Butler, began putting the ball in the basket while choking off much of the pace that helped build the lead. With the Heat trapping James Harden as the shot clock drained, the Rockets became entirely dependent on their 3-point shooting.
The 25-point lead was trimmed to 12 before the Rockets found their shooting touch again, with Harden, Danuel House Jr. and P.J. Tucker each sinking 3s to push the lead to a safe 16 heading into the final two minutes.
That kept the Rockets from matching the Miami rout with one of their own. But for three quarters, the Rockets had responded to the three-game losing streak by checking off the most important lines on their to-do list.
They had dramatically picked up their defense. With a defensive rating during the losing streak that ranked 24th in the league, they held one the best-shooting teams in the NBA to 37.9 percent through three quarters.
In desperate need of shooting off the bench, the Rockets dusted off Gary Clark, who made 5 of 10 shots for 12 points, adding eight rebounds and perhaps more remarkably, playing 29 minutes as the Rockets made up for Clint Capela’s illness and absence with small lineups.
The Rockets also effectively executed to solve the double-teams and traps. Harden had 34 points in his 35 minutes while Russell Westbrook, driving to the rim from the opening minutes, had 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
With that, they needed just one more shooter and found him in House, who made 7 of 11 shots for a career-high 23 points, seemingly entirely over his shoulder issues while seeming to show how the Rockets can answer the defenses they are now sure to see.
The Heat, as promised, came out with a wide array of defenses on Harden to the point scouts could have been running out of ink to keep up. The Rockets, however, were far more decisive in attacking them all, playing with pace from the start and with Harden shooting as he could not Sunday against the Mavericks.
He especially seemed to enjoy firing 3s above the Miami zones, scoring 13 of his 24 first-half points in seven second-quarter minutes. But that was not the only difference.
Westbrook looked to drive, much as he had been in Sunday’s second half. Westbrook scored 18 first-half points, making 8 of 12 attempts and taking just one 3-pointer.
With Westbrook piercing the Miami defense with dribble drives, the Rockets needed only to find a bit of shooting around him.
Clark had played just 10 minutes in four appearances in the Rockets’ first 17 games. On Wednesday, he played the entire second quarter, scoring seven points with five rebounds while playing well enough defensively for D’Antoni to keep him on the floor in his small lineup.
He had to go small in part because Capela was out with a virus. With the Heat using range-shooting Kelly Olynyk off the bench, and with Isaiah Hartenstein’s first-quarter minutes not going well, the Rockets went with their lineup that includes Tucker at center, outscoring the Heat 39-19 in the second quarter.
The Heat had already seemed entirely reliant on their 3-point shooting. They went more than five minutes before they even attempted a shot inside the 3-point line, going 1 of 9 to start the game.
By halftime, the Heat had made just 39.5 percent of their shots with 12 turnovers. The Rockets’ 24point lead was just one shy of the edge the Heat had at the break in Miami. They could not make it a rout, but the Rockets preferred to pretend that never happened anyway.