Win streak puts Warriors on notice
SALT LAKE CITY — As the Rockets headed to the visitors’ locker room in Oklahoma City, having finished a road victory that would rank among their best of the season and the latest in a winning streak that has reached 10 games, celebratory shouts echoed and were punctuated with high-fives.
The Rockets were not just celebrating an overtime win with franchise owner Tilman Fertitta there to giddily greet them. There also was a clearer sense that they have become something greater than when the winning streak began and another significant step removed from the “pain” of the seasons spent rebuilding.
Just a game behind the Warriors in the playoff chase, the Rockets are close enough to have the spotlight that follows Golden State everywhere shine on them, too.
Days after Jalen Green declared that the Warriors “need to start paying attention, for sure,” he showed similar confidence about where the Rockets’ run could take them.
“We’re going to get a play-in game,” he said. “We’re going to keep winning.”
Even with just 10 games remaining, beginning Friday against the Utah Jazz, there remains a long way to go for that. The Warriors have a much softer closing schedule and the tiebreaker already assured.
The Rockets, however, have demonstrated their worthiness to keep such fast company.
“We’re a good team,” Green said. “We showed that we’re dogs. We’re competitors.”
More than that, in their 12-1 charge through March, they have become a better, more explosive team, with the 132-126 overtime win at Oklahoma City (which was without star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) refuting doubts that could come from the Rockets’ run through struggling or shorthanded opponents.
“To go on a 10-game streak, there’s going to be all types of wins and different ways you’ve got to get them,” guard Fred VanVleet said. “We’ve had blowouts. We’ve had teams that are kind of throwing out the end of their rosters against us. And then you got a team like (the Thunder). They were without Shai, obviously, but one of the best teams all year, especially at home.
“Had to go shot for shot, had to go overtime, had to have big performances. Jalen being double-teamed, Jabari (Smith Jr.) having foul trouble, Dillon (Brooks) couldn’t make a shot and then hit two big ones (to start the overtime). Contributions all over the place. I think it’s just a testament to us staying together. It’ll build us going forward.”
As much as the Rockets have grown in obvious ways, with Green soaring through the best stretch of his career and the offense going from No. 24 through February to No. 2 in March, players have cited the togetherness and confidence in one another, not just when celebrating after a win but when things have gone badly.
“When we come on the floor, we play hard for each other, and you see the result,” Brooks said.
“Everything you do and say and preach is going to be tested on a game-togame basis,” VanVleet said. “We were definitely tested. It’s another game for us to look back on and say, ‘What we do here works. And what we practice and preach works. Just trust it. You build that over time, and it keeps growing. (The win Wednesday) is another step in that direction.”
That trust became most evident with the game on the line, with Green passing to Smith with the Rockets down one in the last half-minute. Smith had missed all three of his 3-pointers. but he hit that corner 3. And barely into overtime, Green twice set up Brooks, who had made just one of his first eight 3s. He sank the next two.
Green would score 37 points, adding 10 rebounds. But on a night his teammates had made four of 27 3s before Smith’s late field goal, when the Thunder sent double-teams to slow Green, he moved the ball well enough that in addition to his seven assists he had 18 passes that were potential assists.
“He’s done a really good job against traps and blitzes lately, trusting his guys and finding the pocket and getting the numbers,” coach Ime Udoka said. “Something you have to work on constantly for a young guy. Sometimes it’s as simple as making the right play and being fouron-three behind it.”
Green has had to read defenses and make those passes because of the way he has scored, especially since the injury to center Alperen Şengün, forcing opponents to send extra bodies to cover him. Green has scored at least 25 points in seven consecutive games, the longest streak of his career. He has averaged 29.8 points on 51% shooting and 45.9% 3point shooting in the winning streak.
“He’s consistent in his routine. He’s in the gym every day,” Brooks said of how Green has turned things around. “He’s confident in his shots. Everyone around him is confident in his shots. We know he’s that guy.”
Udoka had said playing the Thunder in Oklahoma City would provide a “barometer” of the Rockets’ improvement over the winning streak. That was before he learned Gilgeous-Alexander would miss the game, but the way it unfolded brought a different sort of test.
The Rockets had to overcome foul trouble, an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit, and all the momentum the Thunder had on a home floor that is among the toughest in the NBA.
Green made a point to pledge the celebrating would end when the flight to Salt Lake City went wheels up.
The Jazz offer a different test in a rematch of a blowout Rockets win last week, with Utah expected to be fortified by Lauri Markkanen’s return to the lineup. But with credibility added to the winning streak after the victory at Oklahoma City, the Rockets could feel pride in how far they had come, as shouts in the hallways Wednesday night made loud and clear.
“I didn’t have the pain of the last three years with all the losing,” Udoka said. “Obviously, it means a lot to them. Myself as well. Ten in a row is 10 in a row. It’s hard to do in the NBA. Guys are proud of that effort, well deserved. The last three years with 17, 19 and 22 wins, that’s the reaction you’re going to get when you put 10 together in the row.
“To still be playing for something, winning 10 in a row and playing highquality teams, that’s the reaction you’re going to get. It’s invaluable for our young guys to go through this. Obviously, making the playoffs and play-in would be another step.”