The Houston Rockets sure took their time in grabbing this win. For some reason they once again waited to lock down on defense, they waited to win the harder game of a back to back, and I waited a long time to watch the game. It was a day of waiting, and being rewarded with something that wasn’t terrible. Maybe the Rockets can use this game as a building block. Maybe on the 20th try that will finally come true. Maybe now that we’ve waited long enough it will finally happen.
I don’t have much to say about a game that technical difficulties chopped and screwed randomly. None of this game made any sense, and I think that’s mostly a feature of being a Rockets game. Corey Brewer going 5-10 from three point range was a large part of what brought the Rockets back into the game. Since the Rockets got into an 18 point deficit by missing open and easy shots, it’s only fitting that they got back in based on hitting contested and unlikely ones.
James Harden held court, again. 11-20 shooting, 40 points, 14 assists, 1 turnover. He started slow and eventually just ground everyone underneath his drives to the rim and masterful passes. His defense was as unpredictable as ever, but that’s basically just what it says on the box at this point.
Dwight Howard got called for some interesting calls, including a contentious flagrant foul. When the foul was called, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff became so incensed that he stormed the court and got a technical. I have to wonder what he thought when they called it a flagrant. Frustration with officiating aside, Howard had a very efficient 21 points on 9-12 shooting to go with his 11 rebounds. A lot of these were off lobs from James Harden, which is exactly what the Rockets need to do. His misses were on post-up attempts, which is exactly what they Rockets need to not do.
Some other things happened, but mostly the team looked like they wanted to win and once they stopped missing every open three or layup they attempted. It was a weird, exhausting affair full of weird, exhausted people. Corey Brewer ended the post-game interview by saying “Go Rockets.” Things are weird, and I’m an exhausted person. I’m just glad they won this time.
