Reversal of rolls
Record rally from 25 down atones for loss in San Antonio
The Rockets had moved on from the loss, from the protest, even the first zero-point dunk in NBA history. But there was only one way to truly put that to rest.
They also knew that if the Spurs could do it to them, they could do it to the Spurs. So as if to ensure they could not blow another lead, the Rockets slept through the first half Monday night, falling into a 25-point hole.
When they roared back, coach Mike D’Antoni got his challenge and won it, Harden’s dunk counted for two points and the Rockets rallied to the largest comeback win in franchise history, surging past the Spurs and holding on late for a 109-107 victory.
They also hoped to take something from the game they could not when their protest of the previous game against the Spurs, a game they once led by 22, was quickly defeated.
“Maybe we’ll have that mentality where we start games this way,” D’Antoni said. “When we play hard, we’re pretty good.”
They might have even been good enough to remove the remainder of the pain still left from the loss in San Antonio, though D’Antoni said, “There is always a place in your heart for that one. There’s a few scars there.”
A loss on Monday, the way things were going, would have left a mark far more significant and difficult to remove.
The Rockets seemed to know this, with their latest sluggish start, filled with the defensive lapses that have become a familiar recent problem helping Spurs torch them for 72 first-half points.
A team that averages a leaguelow nine 3-pointers per game, the Spurs made 10 in the first half, with Bryn Forbes going 6 of 6. With Harden getting off to a 2-of-15 start, it took Russell Westbrook’s most-prolific scoring half of the season (25 of his 31 points) to stay in the game. Though even when the Rockets cut that lead to 18 by halftime, they had not yet shown they were really still in it.
“We’ve been trending that way for about five or six games,” D’Antoni said. “They came out and slapped us pretty good. They obviously hit everything, but we allowed them to hit everything.
“The second half, weren’t any adjustments; we just made a mental adjustment. We played harder and got into people. And it’s funny, they made mistakes and didn’t shoot quite as well when you get pressure on them, like anybody.”
When the turnaround began, few seemed to notice. Harden ended the half with a drive and a 3-pointer, buckets that when he got going in the second half, seemed to have snapped him out of his funk.
He still was not scoring quite at last week’s back-to-back 50point game pace. But after that 2-of-15 start, Harden made 8 of 14 shots, including 4 of 7 3s.
“My confidence is never gone,” Harden said. “I’m always shooting the basketball and being aggressive. Early, they weren’t falling.”
With the Rockets up three heading into the final two minutes after Ben McLemore and P.J. Tucker sank consecutive 3-pointers, Harden drew a charge but missed a 3. McLemore, who was 6 of 11 for 17 points, missed a 3-pointer. Westbrook missed a turnaround jumper off the backboard. The Spurs, who had played an NBA record four-consecutive overtime games including the double-overtime win against the Rockets on Dec. 3, cut the lead to one with a Rudy Gay drive. But Harden missed from deep again. The Rockets, however, held on when Forbes twice missed the 3-pointers he had pumped in when the Spurs built their lead, offering a final reminder of how everything had been reversed since the previous meeting when the Rockets went from sharpshooting to missing.
Along the way, the Rockets might have gotten something more valuable than even an answer to the loss in San Antonio. They got a reminder of what they can be when playing with great intensity and what can happen if they don’t.
“Hope so,” Harden said. “Very active. We were communicating. We were helping each other. We were limiting them to one shot. In the second half, we held them to 35 points. Anytime you can do that, you’re doing something right defensively. We need to keep that mindset.
“They were getting easy baskets from the beginning of the game. Defensively, we were an opposite team. We were the team we need to be from the beginning of the game and throughout the course of the season.”