Houston Rockets Need Gut Check If They're Serious About No. 1 Seed

The honeymoon period for the Houston Rockets is over.

If this team doesn't find its focus, any chance of securing the Western Conference's top seed could be gone, too.

It's better to have mental breakdowns in November than in June, but the loss column can grow at any time of the year. Dig too big a hole now, and you'll be packing for playoff series openers later.

The Rockets have one thing going for them, as they'll have a bigger say in their destiny than any opponent will. But is the on-court product as good as the on-paper talent looks?

Fatal Flaws?

We've all seen the play, and we've all had that thought.

James Harden scurrying around a Dwight Howard screen on the wing. One defender gets left in the dust, while the other is forced to chose between a dynamic driver and a ferocious finisher. Harden either completes the play himself or goes up top to Howard.

Fans go crazy. Highlight reels start spinning. And hoops heads everywhere wonder just who can beat these Rockets?

Well, the Los Angeles Lakers can. The battered, bruised, Kobe Bryant-less Lakers proved it with a 99-98 win over the Rockets on Thursday night.

Just a meaningless game in November, right? Well, that's not how Houston forward Chandler Parsons saw it, via Sam Amick of USA Today:

"

It's a terrible loss to a team that we should beat, especially on our home floor, and in the Western Conference it's going to be thick, and we're playing for a seeding and we want to be a No. 1 seed. A loss like this is something that's going to haunt us.

"

Find one thing in Parsons' words that you can disagree with. Still searching for it? Of course you are, because it doesn't exist.

The Rockets should've crushed the Lakers. The Western Conference is about to topple over itself, there's so much weight at the top.

So, what went wrong in Houston? Everything.

Offensive miscues (.377/.259/.635 shooting, 17 turnovers), more missed free throws by Howard (5-of-16) and defensive breakdowns—the last of which allowed Steve Blake a clean look at a coffin-closing triple.

This game was the most glaring example, but cracks have been forming in Houston's defense at an alarming rate. Three of the Rockets' first six opponents have topped the century mark, including the 137-point barrage Houston yielded to the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 4:

It isn't that Houston lacks competent defenders. The Rockets are massive in the middle and athletic on the wings.

The problem, as Parsons told Amick, is that this group isn't working together:

"

When we go to that small lineup, we have to make sure we're on the same page. If we're switching, (then) switch. If it's just ball screens, then so be it. (But) we have to talk better. We can't keep having these mental lapses. We were doing it all game.

"

Maybe that's an organic change that just needs time to take shape. Hopefully that's the problem, because the other possible causes are far more troubling.

Accountability

As much as we like to focus on the league's superstars, basketball is still a team sport. Part of being a productive team member is admitting when you made a mistake, owning up to it and working to prevent it from happening again.

Sadly, accountability has never been one of Howard's strengths.

His Orlando Magic squad that won a lot of games but never captured a title? "Full of people nobody wanted," Howard said, via Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.

His orchestration of former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy's dismissal? He claimed it never happened.

He cast a safety net before his disastrous season with the Lakers even started. The Brooklyn Nets, not the Lakers, were the team he really wanted to join. If things soured in L.A., which they seemingly did right out of the gate, that failure was off his shoulders.

From that sense, the 2013-14 campaign has started on an ominous note for the Rockets. A team breakdown, not his late rotation, was the reason Blake got off his game-winner, per Jonathan Feigin of the Houston Chronicle:

Houston struggled at the foul line, not just Howard, regardless what the stat sheet said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles:

Howard's not the only one having problems.

Despite having the league's third-most potent offense (107.5 points per game), the Rockets are 28th in assist percentage (48.8). Houston's been careless with the basketball (17.5 percent turnover ratio, 25th), particularly Harden (4.5 turnovers per game), Howard (3.5) and Jeremy Lin (3.0).

There's no reason that Houston should be hurting in the assists and turnover columns. This roster is loaded with willing passers and capable scorers at the end of those feeds.

But where are the players raising their hands and putting those pitfalls on their shoulders?

This team plays like it has no idea how all of these pieces can coexist. Part of that fault lies with coach Kevin McHale, who needs to scrap his twin-tower idea before it does any more damage:

But when things go south—which they inevitably will over the course of an 82-game season—which one of these players will be ready to accept responsibilities for their mistakes?

It might sound highly critical, but that's only to match this team's ceiling. It's too early to entertain title thoughts, yet they're hard to avoid with this team.

After the Rain...

...comes anything the Rockets desire.

Harden and Howard were handfuls on their own, but they're nearly an impossible puzzle together. Parsons' jack-of-all-trades skills make him an ideal third option. Lin is a scoring threat off the dribble and Patrick Beverley leads a deep group of three-point artists.

The Rockets can play small ball or bang with behemoths. They have the athletes to outrun opponents on the break, and the ball-handlers to create in the half court.

But Houston's not at that elite level just yet. Far from it in fact.

Ball movement comes as often as a Howard make at the foul line. Houston's half-court identity is getting out of Harden's way and seeing what the bearded baller can come up with.

There are things that need fixing, and postseason seeding is at stake the longer it takes to implement those changes.

The Rockets don't want to peak quite yet. We all remember how that worked out for the Los Angeles Clippers last season—undefeated in December, out of the championship chase by early May.

But Houston needs an upswing now to finish the season near that prominent playoff perch it has in its sights.

*Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com.

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