Another familiar trip to dismal destination for confounding team
After all this time — the painful postseasons, the numbing letdowns, the inexplicable noshows — I am still writing the same thing about James Harden’s Rockets.
Because they make me.
There is nothing else to write. No other avenue to take. Nothing else to say.
They are one of the smoothest, coolest and most dangerous teams in the NBA. And they are still the most maddening and frustrating.
No wonder that Chris Paul’s Oklahoma City Thunder stole Game 4 117-114 on Monday in the Florida bubble, the game after CP3 strongly finished in overtime and Harden was forced to watch defeat from the bench.
No wonder that the basketball world, after all this time, still takes pride in doubting the Rockets’ legitimacy.
And no wonder that Harden’s basketball legacy is still missing one huge thing, while coach Mike D’Antoni and longtime general manager Daryl Morey could both be looking for new jobs before Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Moreyball (small ball plus 58 3-point attempts in 2020) might win the Rockets a championship one day.
Monday, it failed yet again. And the Rockets again only had themselves to blame.
“It was a disaster on both ends,” said Harden, referring to a second-half collapse on both ends of the hardwood that was the Rockets’ answer to a 15-point lead with 6 minutes, 19 seconds left in the third quarter.
It’s 2-2 in this Western Conference first-round series, partly because a healing Russell Westbrook is still cheering/coaching from the bench. It’s also 2-2 because the Rockets are still the Rockets, Harden is still Harden — even after winning three consecutive regular-season scoring titles — and anyone who’s studied this team since 2015 could see the letdown of Game 4 coming from 15 miles away.
Everyone watching knew what needed to be done. Drive. Attack. Refuse to settle. Refuse to jack up empty 3s. Then play real defense with another playoff victory on the line.
The 3-obsessed Rockets wilted and gave in. Again.
Harden averaged a leaguehigh 34.3 points this season. He scored a game-high 32 in Game 4. But he shot just 11-of-25 from the field and 6-of-15 on 3s. And when he walked off the hardwood after his team’s second consecutive loss, he intentionally knocked over an innocent hand sanitizing station.
That says it all about the 2020 Rockets at this point in their history.
Could they win Game 5? Sure. Will they capture the next two contests, get Westbrook back for the second round and make Game 4 of the first round instantly
forgettable? Perhaps.
This team is so unpredictable, uneven and prone to random fluctuations that nothing surprises anymore. And it’s been this way since 2015, when the Rockets fell more and more under Harden’s control and began following their leader — in the best and worst senses of that term.
The box score says that the Rockets sank a very acceptable 39.7 percent (23-of-58) of their 3s. Somewhere, a couple Twitter experts are tweeting that missed 3s weren’t the problem in Game 4.
Some people also still proudly refuse to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Rockets settled. The Rockets got lazy. The Rockets took Game 4 for granted, when it clearly should have ended up as 3-1 Harden’s team with Westbrook healing.
The Rockets needed better coaching and stronger on-court leadership.
Since we’re being honest: They just needed someone to scream at them to wake the heck up and remember what happened in that 0-for-27 game.
“It’s the way they made their run,” Harden said. “We weren’t getting the shots we wanted offensively and defensively we weren’t staying to our principles.”
Horrible offense led to weak defense — also a recurring trend since 2015 — and a lesser, largely inexperienced OKC squad finished off its second consecutive W.
Harden missed 28-, 31- and 30-foot 3s as the Thunder created third-quarter life.
A fun debate question after Game 4: Who would you rather build a team around right now — Luka Doncic or the face of the Rockets’ franchise?
I want to say that you keep waiting for and hoping it will click. That team- and careerchanging moment when Harden realizes the Rockets will only go as far as he leads them, on the court, off the hardwood and during mission-critical moments when seasons are being defined in real time.
But I don’t believe that in August of 2020.
You are too used to this. You have numbly watched the other side too many times.
I still believe the Rockets will win this series, because I’m not ready to write that they need another coach, another GM and another system.
But are they going to win the 2019-20 NBA championship in the bubble by playing this way and inflicting self-damage at the worst possible time?
After all this time, I know this more than ever. I’ll believe the Rockets are winning a world title with Harden as their best player when they win a world title with Harden as their best player.
Game 4 did not help that belief.