Sometimes the best games bring you the worst losses. As David Mitchell tells us, “I really hope my team wins, so it will turn out later, I’m enjoying myself now.” As Jason Terry’s last hurrah left his hands, as the shot arced toward the rim, we didn’t know if it was an awful loss or a great win. In that moment, before it went in and back out again, handing the Utah Jazz the 8th seed and the tiebreaker, it was an exhausting, exciting, and most of all close game. The good and bad, like the score, were teetering on the knife’s edge.
In the end, the game tipped over onto the bad side and fell hard. But, hey, at least they tried. Maybe it says a lot about this season that a loss with potentially disastrous implications was in many ways a step in the right direction. Maybe it’s troubling that nipping at the Jazz’s heels is an upgrade for a team with two superstars. But if we’re going to enjoy ourselves now, midway through a season destined to end in crushing, miserable defeat, the best thing to do is to fish out the positives and keep them with us. After the weirdest trade deadline in recent memory, the Rockets are back to square one (or maybe square negative four or so) on the season, trying to figure out how to make the same team as last year into the same team as last year. Small blessings like an improved defensive intensity are like an oasis in the desert, and that’s where to pitch a tent. The Rockets actually played good defense (for two thirds of the game)! It didn’t end up mattering, because of a large variety of reasons, but it was good to see them rely on their defense to stay in a game they clearly shouldn’t be in based on offensive production. There are still breakdowns, but it looks a lot better than it did in the first half of the season. The Rockets are, at this point, on par with the well-coached up-and-coming teams like the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz. They might even be in the same tier as the Boston Celtics. Wait, this is getting depressing again. Let’s find something else good. James Harden went ballistic on the court, working with Patrick Beverley to will the team to victory. The will may not have found a way, but Harden did accumulate an eye-popping line of 42 points (16 of 30 shooting), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 5 turnovers, and the Rockets needed every last bit of that. The starters at large played well, though Trevor Ariza managed to end up with a game-worst +/- of -12 in 41 minutes. Meanwhile, Ty Lawson somehow netted a +2, one of only four Rockets players to be in the positive. This was despite some truly atrocious play. The bench was a disaster. Ignore Corey Brewer’s +11 for now. His 3 steals must account for his entire contribution to that, because his 0-5 shooting sure didn’t. Terrence Jones and Ty Lawson combined for 7 points on 7 shots, one rebound (ONE!) and two steals in 28 minutes between them. Combine this with Brewer’s non-line and Jason Terry’s 1-6 shooting from deep for only 8 points on 9 shots and you get a horrifying stew of failure and despair. The good news here is that the Rockets were able to hang with an impressive young team despite the fact that they effectively didn’t have a bench. Even the starters didn’t look amazing on offense. If the Rockets can just manage to get a single bench player to be even rotation-quality, they might win a few games. This is the story of the season, however. Death by a thousand cuts. The Rockets are experiencing an existential worst-case scenario and are still sort of standing. Season-ending injuries to Harden and Howard would be far worse for the players, but at least would give the team real outs for underperforming, and a good reason and opportunity to grab a lottery pick by missing the playoffs. In reality, the Rockets can’t even make a trade without it being rescinded. Every player has regressed alarmingly. The chemistry is a shambles, the new guy didn’t work out, and nobody has any idea how to get home. But tonight, at least, they tried. They might have shot poorly from the field (41.4%) and three point range (32.4%), but at least the defense looked good for a while. They might have lost the game, but at least they forced 21 turnovers, which would be a death sentence for any other team in any other game. There’s something worth watching here, even if it ended up retroactively being unpleasant. But hey, if we only choose to enjoy the wins, then we’re letting that ball decide how we feel. Maybe it doesn’t matter if the ball rimmed out later. Maybe we can live in the moment where it’s still in the air, instead.
