As it turns out, it’s not good for a team to have twice as many turnovers as their opponent. Shooting 10% worse from the field and 18% worse from three point range doesn’t help either. The big story here is that playing terribly isn’t a good way to win basketball games. On the plus side, the Rockets’ pet project since Mexico City is coming to fruition. Their quest to create the most miserable and disappointing game of basketball possible. Their outings against Philadelphia and Oklahoma City were good tries, but ending with a win took some of the sting off. That was a mistake the Rockets didn’t make again. Being humiliated by the Memphis Grizzlies was absolutely their worst game of the year, a masterwork of falling back on bad habits that had as many layers as any James Joyce novel.
First, an important note. The Memphis Grizzlies are exceedingly good. This team played their best game of the year, to be sure, but has been solid all season long. They’re 10-1 for a reason, and are a legitimate threat out west yet again. Their defense remains cloying and frustrating for opponents, their roster still boasts an amazing team fit and a united mentality, and just to add another level of superiority, they’re a better shooting team this year, mediating one of their biggest flaws in recent years. Until Zach Randolph’s play falls off a cliff due to age, this team (like about 6 others) remains a threat to go to the NBA Finals any given year. The question now is whether the Rockets are also in that category.
Yes, the Rockets were on a back to back. Yes, six of their ten games so far have been in back to backs that ended on the road. The schedule has been tough. Terrence Jones has been out for over a week and Patrick Beverley missed time, too. All of these factors are reasons why the Rockets have had a hard time. They’re not, however, reasons why the Rockets should slide back into their worst habits from last season. There are worrisome trends at play, and a blowout loss was going to come sooner or later.
Houston’s offense is back to trying to cram Dwight Howard’s post-up game down everyone’s throats, something that has worked here and there but which is, overall, choking the life out of an already sputtering defense. James Harden has been an improved passer, but when nobody can hit anything, he finds himself on an island with nowhere to go. Every player seems devoted to making the hardest possible passes at all moments, all of which have come together to bring us an offense that struggles to crack 25% from three point range. The Rockets have built a house with these bricks, and now they have to live in the moldy, condemned structure they’ve set up.
The defense has been, until this game, stellar. Eventually, frustration set in when the Grizzlies calmly and mercilessly picked apart every rotation, every effort on help defense and every weak attempt to box anyone out. The Rockets’ culture had looked much more hard-nosed, but after a tiring stretch of miserable games, they looked beaten and indifferent. Rockets head coach Kevin McHale, after making noise about playing the starters fewer minutes, is back to grinding the life out of his stars. The only thing that kept Howard and Harden from playing 40 minutes each was that the entire fourth quarter was garbage time. Being forced to play the starters long minutes in close games hasn’t helped, and has led to a cycle of fatigue that will only get worse as the season progresses.
This game was a wake up call. The Rockets seem to get sloppy and complacent unless the whole world is underestimating them, something which is either a hilarious coincidence or a very worrisome habit. There was every reason to believe that the Rockets, even at their best, would lose to the Grizzlies. It was a schedule loss, and those happen. What didn’t need to happen was a horrible drubbing right out the gate, and a signature win for a team they have to play three more times. The Rockets have had a 3-1 week if you count by points, but a 0-4 week in terms of moral victories.
Excuses don’t count in the NBA, especially not in the Western Conference. The Rockets have none to give, anyway. The box score isn’t worth looking at, and there’s no silver lining. There’s just a team that needs to beat down some bottom feeders (The Lakers, by the way, are in some sights they never asked to be in right now), work on their offense, and get back to the clip they’ve shown they can play at. The Rockets could be a lot worse than 9-2 right now, but we know and they know that they could be playing a hell of a lot better.
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