Takeaways from the Rockets 114-107 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday in Indianapolis:
The Rockets have a revamped roster, a new coach and loads of obstacles. They also have plenty of veterans. They should be the sort of team that executes down the stretch, that wins the toss-up games.
They need their share of those games while working out the many expected kinks. The first one that they lost, when playing severely shorthanded and going to overtime in Portland to open the season, might have been understandable. Wednesday’s loss to the Pacers indicated how much needs to be corrected before the Rockets (2-4) can play and win like a team of veterans built to win such games.
“We have to learn how to play,” Rockets forward P.J. Tucker said. “We can’t leave strong-side corners on teams’ leading scorers. Can’t make mental mistakes we make down the stretch. There’s other little things you can’t do and win games. With all the hard play, there are things you just can’t do.”
He could have listed others, but the point was that attention to details, the sort of things that don’t make it into headlines and commercials, win close games or more likely, that failing to do them, lose those games.
The Rockets need those games with the 6-2 Magic in Toyota Center on Friday before consecutive games against the 6-2 Lakers. While making up for lost time and shorthanded again, the Rockets need wins where they can find them. They had a chance to steal a win in Indianapolis but added another frustrating loss.
1. When asked if his ankle, two games removed from forcing him to sit out against the Kings, was an issue, James Harden said he was “fine.” This does not mean that he is or is not. Harden has long refused to cite an injury after a poor game. He was not about to start Wednesday.
Harden never looked right in the past two games, but that does not mean that he is playing through an injury, or even that he was struggling because of the time lost to the injury that he could not afford to lose.
There have been many times that Harden has been caught in opposing teams' traps and never found a rhythm, never quite looked comfortable. Against the Pacers on Wednesday, he began the game facilitating offense and did it well. He finished with 12 assists. The Rockets did a much better job taking advantage of the room to attack the paint that was available with so much attention paid to defending Harden.
Still, the Rockets need Harden to be at his best as a scorer and a playmaker. Averaging a league-high 33 points coming into the game, Harden finished with 15 a game after struggling to 21 against the Mavericks two nights earlier.
There is little to indicate that his desire, presumably unchanged, to be traded, is a factor in a few bad shooting nights. But the preseason time or quarantine time lost might have made him need the work he could not do when out with the ankle injury.
That could have something to do with a few poor shooting nights when he got back. But there have been plenty of similar and longer shooting slumps when things seemed both hunky and dory between him and the Rockets and when he had not spent training camp or practice time to doing other things.
In some ways, every time Harden struggles to find his shooting touch while surrounded in trapping defenses seems to illustrate how remarkable it has been when he beat those defenses. But that is still what the Rockets need from him.
Harden could catch a wave of hot shooting at any time. Just as he has tossed out clunkers before, he has turned that around without warning and against defenses every bit as twisted to stop him. He also might not feel entirely comfortable with the tweaks to the Rockets’ offense. He could be getting accustomed to teammates. He might have been well-served to have Christian Wood diving to the rim or shooters nailing 3-pointers.
As with most things, a two-game sample — in the game he sprained the ankle, he scored 16 of the Rockets’ last 18 points and set up the other two — is not enough to draw conclusions. It is also not enough to determine why in the past two games Harden made just 10 of 31 shots.
It is certain that the Rockets need Harden at his best. But as always, the spotlight will be on him as much as ever, growing brighter by next week when the Lakers bring theirs to town, too.
2. Small ball was back. In many ways, it had never gone away. But the Rockets did not expect to go centerless quite so much.
With the game on the line, Stephen Silas went with his small lineup. Christian Wood was out with a sore left knee. DeMarcus Cousins was productive, but he still is not finishing his otherwise strong drives, and did not play in the fourth quarter. Silas seems no more moved to play Bruno Caboclo than Mike D’Antoni or Caboclo’s other coaches.
The Rockets still seem better when switching and improved defensively when going small.
“I thought our small team brought us back,” Silas said. “We had better energy. We were active, a lot more active in the second half defensively. Our defense was much better in the second half going small.”
So, the Rockets went without a center again. They played 6-5 P.J. Tucker and 6-4 Jae’Sean Tate together, making them even smaller than last season when 6-7 Robert Covington was on the floor, and then went even smaller with Eric Gordon replacing Tate.
The Rockets did it to spread the floor and attack the basket and to switch everything defensively. It worked well enough. The Rockets defended better that way and got good shots.
The problem is that when playing a small lineup, the Rockets should have two things going for them. They should be able to keep ballhandlers in front of them and they should sink open 3s. They have more than enough players who have done both in the league.
Despite improvements along the way Wednesday, the Rockets are still getting beaten off the dribble too often. They rank 26th in points allowed in the paint. They are 28th in second-chance points allowed, most after penetration leads to breakdowns as with a pair of Domantas Sabonis put-backs down the stretch Wednesday.
They are also not making open 3-pointers. They 27th in 3-point shooting, tied for 20th in 3s per game.
The combination of those shortcomings conspired to work against the smallball move. Wood will return. Cousins will likely begin finishing to add that option. But for now, Silas had to go with a small lineup and likely will again. To make it work, the Rockets will need to do many things well, but especially defending on the ball and hitting the open shots smallball demands.
3. There have been stretches the Rockets defended well. That’s how they beat the Kings on Saturday, how they erased double-digit leads to the Mavericks and Pacers on Monday and Wednesday. There is potential there.
There are also stretches when the defense has been awful. There will always be ups and downs in NBA games. Players are too talented to be stopped consistently. But down stretches can’t be so bad that they either require repeated double-digit comebacks or just waste the good effort along the way.
The Rockets still have not put together a complete game of solid defense. They’ve gone against a run of strong offensive teams. But there have been breakdowns that would make any NBA offense work.
“There are stretches we’re playing great defense,” Rockets guard John Wall said. “We’re communicating, we’re talking, we’re trusting each other. The times we don’t, we get lazy, switch when we might not be switching, not in the right coverages. Times you get tired, your brain stops working, you start doing stuff on your own. We got to stay locked in as possible. When the game counts the most, that’s when you really got to be locked in.
“I feel like the second quarter and a little bit of the third quarter, we had a … stretch we got out of it. They hit us with big plays. And they hit the shots they needed to to win the game.”
The offense will come around. The Rockets are not up to their standards offensively, but they have not been bad. Their success will be determined by the defense. It has been the issue that has held them back to start the season.
“It’s something that’s always been an uphill battle,” forward P.J. Tucker said. “The start defensively sets a tone. It’s something that throughout the year you got to get better at if you want to make the playoffs and make some noise.”
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