Wednesday NBA Roundup: Rockets Need More Than James Harden's Scoring to Be Elite
James Harden will need help if he's going to make the Houston Rockets matter again, and the irony is he'll have to do more on his own to get there.
Confusing? Don't worry, it's not that complicated.
See, Harden is unquestionably the Rockets' best player—their most influential for sure, just as most superstars are. And in keeping with his role, he led Houston with 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting in a tough 104-101 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. No other Rockets player had more than 12 points in support.
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When games like this happen (especially in up-and-down, mostly disappointing seasons like the one the Rockets are having), we tend to ask which role player has to step up. Who's not pulling his weight? Where can Harden get some assistance?
That's not really the right way to look at the problem.
Better to put this on Houston's best player, to ask what he can do to empower his teammates.
Because Houston will go as far as Harden takes it. And if he wants his guys to step up, it's his job to find ways to help them.
Some of that will be pretty literal. Harden has to find Dwight Howard more often. And to his credit, Houston's second-to-last offensive possession featured Harden tossing Howard a lob when he probably could have tried to finish himself. It didn't work out, but it was symbolic of the options Harden's unparalleled one-on-one game unlocks...if he's open to taking advantage of them.
Ty Lawson looked aggressive in his first game back from suspension, scoring 11 points and posting a plus-10 plus-minus figure in 27 minutes. Clint Capela was 5-of-5, benefiting mostly from the attention Harden drew. Howard didn't get many shots, but converted six of his 10 attempts.
Harden has the ability to make those players better, and he showed flashes of a willingness to do that on Wednesday.
The real issue, though, and the one Harden must address if the Rockets are going to build on what's been a quietly solid December (8-4 record, plus-5.2 net rating, per NBA.com), is the consistency of his effort.
Harden has been pilloried for his defense over the years, and he's deserved most of the criticism. But he's been more committed of late, and there were real signs against Orlando that his more focused, consistent intensity was seeping into the rest of Houston's roster.
Just look at this sequence on offense—loaded with individual efforts and completed by an unselfish play from Harden:
That's a team truly trying.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of calcified malaise (let's just pretend that's a real phrase) that makes it hard for the Rockets to sustain max-effort stretches like that. The half-stepping is deeply ingrained.
And it's no mystery where their cues come from. Even now, Harden's sporadic instances of genuine hustle are cause for surprised, semi-incredulous tweets—like these from ESPN's Calvin Watkins and RedNinetyFour:
When charges taken and dives on the floor are the norm, and nobody tweets about them, we'll know Harden is setting an example worth following.
Against the Magic, occasional effort was nearly enough.
The Rockets buckled down on D in the fourth quarter, holding Orlando to 17 points and erasing a 14-point deficit. But the Magic wouldn't let Houston steal the game with one late-stage surge. Had the Rockets played with their fourth-quarter intensity earlier on (like, say, when Aaron Gordon was lighting them up for 14 points in the second quarter or when Elfrid Payton was traipsing down an undefended lane for back-to-back driving scores in the first half), Orlando wouldn't have had such a big cushion late.
But Houston, like its best player, hasn't made a habit of sustaining focus for entire games—even during an admittedly improved December.
There are Rockets—Capela, Howard, Terrence Jones, even Lawson—ready to help Harden turn this team back into what it was last season. It's up to him to adopt the changes necessary to let them do it.
You Can't Fall Behind Against Boston
R.J. Hunter ended Wednesday's contest between the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets in the second quarter when he drilled a three to put Boston up, 34-24.
Wait. What?
Listen, you just can't fall behind Boston by double digits. It's death.
Celtics radio man Sean Grande explained why after the Celtics' next bucket:
Boston has a tendency to close out opponents in a big way when it builds a lead. Thirteen of the Celtics' 16 victories this year, including the 102-89 win over the Hornets on Wednesday, have come by at least 10 points. And, as Grande pointed out, the Celtics don't ever win the close ones.
That's a weird stat, right?
One possible explanation for the Celtics' reliance on big leads could be that they're simply not built for close contests. Boston is a clamp-down defensive force with loads of good wing defenders, lots of depth and no legitimate star to finish off tight games on offense.
So as long as the Celtics lean on their depth and get hyper-aggressive defensively whenever they push ahead by double digits, they're fine. But if they have to go back and forth against a team that isn't scrambling to make up a deficit, the formula doesn't work as well.
That's something to keep in mind as we evaluate which of the dozen or so teams in the East will eventually shape up as real playoff threats. Boston can't count on blowouts in May.
The Spurs Are Doing it Again
First of all, Sean Elliott, you call it by acknowledging that not everybody touched it.
Boris Diaw was stationed somewhere off-screen, being a decoy, according to Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills.
"Way to go @theborisdiaw!! You are an amazing decoy! https://t.co/VGX2inLh7n
— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) December 24, 2015"
This sequence is ridiculous, vintage, inimitable beautiful-game stuff. Only the Spurs can make four players seem like five.
They dissected the Minnesota Timberwolves by a final of 108-83, and anyone still uncertain about the Spurs being every bit as good as the more celebrated Golden State Warriors this year should watch that clip on a loop for six or eight hours.
Kristaps Porzingis Is Hard to Find
You might think it'd be tough to lose track of a 7'3" human being who'd scored 23 points through three quarters and, according to some of his more committed devotees, levitates, heals the sick and walks on water.
But how else do you explain Kristaps Porzingis not getting a shot up in the fourth quarter of the New York Knicks' irritating 91-84 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Without Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks leaned on their prized rookie, who finished with 13 rebounds, four assists and one sweet help-side denial of a LeBron James layup in addition to his team-high 23 points.
But they acted as if he didn't exist in the fourth quarter, and that led to some serious frustration and legitimate questions from B/R's Dan Favale and NBA.com's David Aldridge:
There's no good answer here. Porzingis is still probably too green to demand the ball from veterans, so the onus is on New York's ball-handlers and head coach Derek Fisher to find shots for the team's best option.
For the sake of Porzingis' continued development and the sanity of Knicks fans everywhere, let's hope there's not another inexplicable disappearing act in the future.
Dirk Is Sixth, Let's Go Home
Dirk Nowitzki did two great things on Wednesday night.
First, he drilled a jumper from the left baseline to overtake Shaquille O'Neal at No. 6 on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
Second, he provided an opportunity for us to use the best Nowitzki video clip in existence. The race for sixth place is over, so what should we do, Dirk?
Shut it down, indeed.
Some dude named Wilt Chamberlain is next on Nowitzki's list, though he'll have to hustle to close the roughly 2,800-point gap.
Dallas went home with a 119-118 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets.
Everything’s Fine in Phoenix
Nothing to see here! Nobody freak out! Players throw towels at coaches all the time!
The Phoenix Suns’ dysfunctional downward spiral picked up speed Wednesday, as Markieff Morris reportedly chucked a towel at head coach Jeff Hornacek.
Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic relayed the details:
Lineup changes, waning effort, ongoing discontent from Morris that has been simmering since summertime—we should have known this was coming.
That the Suns’ low point came in a dreadful 104-96 loss to a Denver Nuggets team playing the second night of a back-to-back only made it, well, lower.
Hornacek is in an impossible position. He’s a lame-duck coach because the Suns didn’t extend his contract through next season. Keeping Morris on the team long after he had clearly checked out is only making things worse.
The end is nigh for the Suns.
It's Time to Talk About Darren Collison
The Sacramento Kings evened their road-trip record at 2-2 with a legitimately impressive 108-106 win against the Indiana Pacers, and Darren Collison had a lot to do with it.
"We don't win without Darren Collison," Kings coach George Karl told reporters afterward. "It was a team effort in a lot of ways, but Darren Collison was special. I know he played (with Indiana). Sometimes coming back to places (motivates you)."
Sacramento's backup point guard scored 24 points, handed out five assists and grabbed four rebounds in 35 minutes off the bench. When he was on the floor, the Kings outscored the Pacers by a dozen points. Rajon Rondo, the high-profile, stat-stuffing starter, produced 13 points, 16 assists, eight rebounds and nine turnovers.
When Rondo was on the court, Sacramento was outscored by seven.
This is not unusual. On the year, the Kings' net rating has been marginally better with Collison on the floor than it has with Rondo, per NBA.com. This isn't about ripping Rondo, who has played better this year and is probably propping up fantasy teams all over the place. Instead, let's just give Collison his due.
Playing both of them together is becoming increasingly viable, but Collison seems, objectively, to be the more positive overall influence.
And if the Kings want to keep that in mind when they have to decide how much to overpay Rondo as a free agent next summer, that's entirely up to them.
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