The Houston Rockets won their eighth straight game on Sunday against the Toronto Raptors. But while the Rockets continue to show that they are one of the premier teams in the league, they lost the first quarter and fell behind by double digits for the fifth straight game. Toronto led for most of the game until the Rockets went on an 18-0 run in the third and fourth quarters to seize the lead and the win.
Falling behind early is certainly not a good thing, and the Rockets will get burned if they keep playing catch up. But Houston’s ability to repeatedly pull off the comeback shows that this squad has the mental resiliency to fight even after getting punched in the mouth. That is the sort of thing which distinguishes a contender from a pretender, and this team’s mental strength is a credit to Coach Mike D’Antoni, the players, and the type of organisation which Daryl Morey has built.
The importance of character
As any Rockets fan knows, this team loves its analytics and numbers. Morey’s analytical approach has ensured the Rockets have stayed a solid team throughout his ten seasons as general manager.
But as Morey will be the first to admit, his spreadsheets are not perfect. Last year, they seemed to be outright disastrous as the Rockets were the most disappointing team in the league. The defence crumbled, the offence devolved to giving James Harden the ball and telling him to do something, and the Rockets stayed under .500 for most of the season.
There are a lot of reasons to explain why that squad fell apart, but a major reason was the lack of character on that team. Harden and Dwight Howard feuded with one another, Ty Lawson never clicked, and the team became every man for himself. You could tell by the end that the Rockets were just sick of it all and wanted the season to be over.
Daryl Morey has always known the importance of character. In fact, it ended up costing him once as he picked Joey Dorsey in the 2008 NBA draft partly because Dorsey was “funny and likeable and charming” in his job interview. But after the disastrous 2015-16 season, he restocked his cupboard with guys like Ryan Anderson who would be willing to play as part of a team. And he hired a coach who is famous for an offensive system which players want to be a part of.
This has led to Houston’s great record, but the important thing is that the Rockets are winning and having fun in the process. The players have talked over and over again about how much fun they are having this season and how much they get along with one another. And while Harden certainly dominates the ball, he passes it to the right spots and ensures that everyone can get the good, open shot and nice box score numbers.
Learning to Come Back
This camaraderie has enabled the Rockets to come back in games after falling behind and is a marked contrast to last season. Last year, the Rockets started off blowing big leads over and over to teams like Miami and Denver. The offence would bog down late in the game as enemy defences naturally gravitated on Harden and the rest of the Rockets could not hit shots to compensate.
But now the Rockets have so many extra features, like a new ULED TV, that slowing them down seems to be impossible. While Harden played poorly against the Orlando Magic on Friday, Ryan Anderson and Patrick Beverley stepped up. Harden played better against the Raptors and became only the third player to have multiple 40-10-10 games in a season, but the Rockets also won because bench player Montrezl Harrell had the game of his career with 28 points on 12-13 shooting.
Every night, the Rockets can count on someone like Harrell or Anderson to step up, as opposed to last year which had Harden doing everything.
This team effort is also apparent on the defensive side of things. The Rockets, who everyone claimed would be a terrible defensive team at the start of the season, have the fourth best defence since the start of December despite the loss of Dwight Howard in the off-season and the current Clint Capela injury. A team which starts Ryan Anderson and James Harden is now an elite defensive unit because everyone is willing to make the right rotations and play as hard as possible.
Just look at how Harden blocked DeMar DeRozan last night, and that was after he hustled to draw a charge against Patrick Patterson a few minutes earlier.
This season has been a special one for Rockets fans, and no one knows when this magical ride is going to finally end. The Rockets can certainly do better than they currently are, and it would be nice to see them dominate games from the beginning. But the fact that they do not give up even after falling behind by double digits shows that this team has the mental resiliency to go all the way, and it is the product of how they are willing to work together.
Guess the Lakers players!
