This incarnation of the Houston Rockets is apparently unbeatable in overtime. Nobody has done it in the last ten tries, and the Rockets simply look in control during overtime periods. In fact, this Houston team turned it on in the fourth quarter against a New York Knicks team that’s exceeded expectations all season. The Rockets seem to be finding bits and pieces of that groove that helped them win 56 games last season, and they’re doing it with marquee acquisition Ty Lawson on the bench. He didn’t play a single minute during Houston’s overtime thriller, and worse yet, the team didn’t look like they missed him.
The good news is that the Rockets didn’t need 30 points from Harden to pull out a victory. He scored a frankly ugly 26 points on 28 shots, including a frustrating 0-7 from deep. If they could find a way to get a little more open and then will those shots in, they would be in a much better situation. In fact, once their effort raised and some open shots started falling, their win looked almost inevitable. The Rockets are facing so many problems right now, that any one of them lessening is a huge boon. The new J.B. Bickerstaff normal is for the team to start out with decent effort on defense, and then lose their will as the offensive end crashes under a pile of missed open shots.
Of course, the team shouldn’t be buckling under this sort of pressure to begin with, and that goes all the way to the top. Harden has been better on defense lately, but still isn’t at his 2014-2015 benchmark of “good enough.” Ty Lawson has also looks abysmal in basically every possible way, leading to a shocking but not really that shocking benching throughout. Whether his issue is personal, team chemistry related or simply an example of Houston’s coaching staff being inept, this is an untenable situation. It makes sense to try to recapture last year’s team for the time being, but Lawson has to be worked into the system, and soon. This limbo helps no one, least of all Lawson himself.
The highlights of the night were Patrick Beverley and Clint Capela, who are not only playing very well individually (18 and 11 for Capela, a career high in points!) but are developing some nice chemistry that’s fun to watch. Capela continues to be a shining beacon of “play within yourself,” and he’s actually looked great next to Dwight Howard. Given how badly the Rockets play on offense anyway, his lack of spacing hasn’t made much of a negative impact. In fact, he’s a fantastic garbage man and is always lurking for a roll or a cut to the rim. Beverley has been all too happy to oblige, and he seems to be sinking into his role very nicely. He’s shooting as well as anyone on the team so far, and he looks less reckless on both ends of the ball. He seems to be figuring out how to be a solid if not flashy point guard, which is exactly what this Rockets team needs from him. Harden is there to find highlight plays. Beverley just needs to make safe passes, find the cutter, and not turn it over too often.
Dwight Howard also gets major props for dunking on Kristaps Porzingis so hard that the Knicks staff had to search through the baseline seats for pieces of his soul after the game. Howard was once again very good, even finishing a bizarre and hastily assembled reverse alley-oop. He;s been everything the Rockets could expect, and has been nothing but professional and driven for the last couple years. Plenty of people have fallen back on the perception of Dwight Howard as a lackadaisical, soft player, but he hasn’t given anyone reason to think that for years. For all the problems the Rockets have, he’s looked like a solution.
Those problems still exist, however, and the bad news is that the Rockets shouldn’t have needed an overtime to get a win. The Knicks were without Carmelo Anthony (for better or for worse, the jury is definitely out on that one) and were surviving on the combined might of Arron Afflalo (who killed in the post and is in fact an very good player) and Kevin Seraphin (Good for him). Houston’s defense came and went throughout the game, which is better than being absent, but worse than just being present. If they could run a play or hit a shot or rebound a ball, they wouldn’t have needed late game heroics and a last second shot from Marcus Thornton to save the game. This team is still not good, and is a long way from good, but they’re starting to show us why they used to be good. Maybe next time that will involve Ty Lawson.
