Landing at the bottom of a 3-1 second-round series hole against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday was bad, but the way the Houston Rockets dove headlong into the pit was worse.
Houston fell 128-95, and nobody on the roster or bench seemed interested in doing something about a game that went from semi-competitive to downright embarrassing in the blink of an eye. That failure raised real questions about the team's foundation and leadership.
That's a weighty concept—one loss indicating a leadership void—but there are lots of ways to lose games, and you can learn a few things about a team by looking at the manner of defeat. Especially when the manner fits into a troubling pattern.
For example, you can learn that the Rockets weren't strategically equipped to compete in Game 4.
They wholly committed themselves to hacking center DeAndre Jordan in the first half, sending him to the foul line 14 times in the first quarter and another 14 in the second. According to ESPN's Arash Markazi, that amounted to an NBA record for the most free throws attempted by a player in any half of a postseason game.
By now, everyone understands the basic explanation for fouling Jordan: He shot 39.7 percent from the line this season, and sticking him there theoretically prevents the Clippers' top-ranked offense from pummeling opponents with pace.
All told, Jordan made just 14 of his 34 free-throw attempts on the night.
But the negative side effects of Houston's ploy were obvious. The Rockets took away their own transition chances by allowing L.A.'s defense to organize after free throws.
Whether Jordan made or missed them didn't matter much. It was simply harder for Houston to create cross-matches or breakaway chances after the foul shots.
More importantly, slowing the game down benefited the Clippers by making their thin bench less of a factor. More pace would have taxed the likes of forward Blake Griffin, who cruised to 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
And it would have made point guard Chris Paul's sore hamstring a bigger factor.
This did not go unnoticed by Clips head coach Doc Rivers, per Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports:
Paul had an easy 15 points and 12 assists in 26 minutes, hardly breaking a sweat in the process.
Because the Clippers never had to sprint back defensively, the game bogged down. It's also fair to say the Rockets' own stagnant half-court offense was partly caused by a fresh, dug-in Clippers "D" always being in place to face it.
Finally, fouling Jordan marginalized what was Houston's greatest strength this season. It ranked sixth in defensive efficiency, per NBA.com, and instead of trusting in that strength, the Rockets took it out of the equation for a huge percentage of the Clippers' possessions.
On the rare occasions that called for the Rockets to actually defend, Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports wondered if they'd forgotten how:
This was a strategic failure on many fronts for the Rockets, and that falls on head coach Kevin McHale. His plan didn't exactly get much support from star shooting guard James Harden, per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News:
What happened as a result of McHale's strategic failure falls on the players themselves.
Nobody on the roster looked capable of, or interested in, making a strong-willed stand against what turned into a full-on beatdown after halftime. As the Clippers pulled away, the Rockets mailed in transition defense and flung up contested shots on the other end.
Neither Harden nor center Dwight Howard saw it fit to rally the troops.
Howard made what might have passed for an early effort, but his intensity turned quickly to chippiness in the first quarter. He also let L.A.'s resident provocateur, Matt Barnes, rile him up. Foul trouble plagued him, and he finished with just seven points and six rebounds on the night.
D12 committed his sixth foul and picked up his second technical on the same play early in the fourth quarter.
His frustration was understandable, as the Rockets' other defenders left him on an island all night. The weak-side help from Houston was nonexistent.
Harden, who scored 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished six dimes, was statistically better than Howard. But his ball-stopping on offense and invisibility on the other end didn't provide a rallying point for his teammates. He was visibly frustrated throughout, and it felt as though he needed someone to pull him out of his funk.
As an MVP runner-up, Harden should be the one doing the pulling.
Take the Clippers as a close-at-hand example: They're not always strategically perfect and are certainly guilty of losing focus every once in a while, but can you imagine Paul letting his team roll over like Howard, Harden and McHale let theirs on Sunday night?
Paul is a rare leader, so maybe this isn't a fair comparison. However, it at least highlights the fact that Houston doesn't have anyone with wiring that remotely resembles Paul's.
The Rockets' team-building model is all about snagging stars, and they've got two big ones in Harden and Howard now.
But judging by this game, this series and those two players' broader reputation for substandard professionalism, they're not the kinds of figures teammates can look to when it seems the world is caving in around them.
And though McHale has had success as a coach, it's been difficult to watch his team in this series without concluding that his skills as a tactician and motivator are lacking.
He wasn't exactly brimming with answers after Game 4, per Adam Wexler of KPRC-TV in Houston:
Maybe all of this is overly harsh.
Maybe this is just a case of facing a Clippers team that bested the defending champs and now feels totally invincible.
Maybe the Clippers would have done this to anybody after getting the validation that comes from beating the San Antonio Spurs.
But it's still hard to avoid the feeling that something bigger is going on with the Rockets—that there's something vital missing.
Houston needs its Paul Pierce—a veteran warrior who can still back up wise words and grit with big plays.
Given what we know about the Rockets, however, it's hard to imagine a player like that wanting to cast his lot with Howard and Harden. You've also got to wonder whether those two would readily fall in line behind a real leader.
Here's the thing: Houston, once eliminated, can pretty much return the same roster it has now, add a piece or two and run off another 50-something-win campaign next year. The Rockets will almost certainly find themselves right in the thick of the playoffs again a season from now.
But based on what we've seen against the Clippers, the Rockets need something to change. And it's not clear whether they currently have the someone necessary to change it.
No comments:
Post a Comment