Dwight Howard has a perfectly good explanation for the Houston Rockets’ bench’s muted reaction to James Harden’s game winner, and he has a message for the critics, too.
Howard said that the bench was too worried about setting up a good defensive stand to celebrate prematurely.
“They’re known to hit crazy shots,” Howard explained Friday, via Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “I know last night, things were brought up about the bench not being happy about James hitting the shot. I think all of us were happy. At the same time, we were more focused on ‘we can’t allow this team to get the ball again and shoot.’ Sometimes they play like Angels in the Outfield. They might catch it at halfcourt and hit a crazy shot. You just can’t celebrate in a situation like that.
“Nobody was upset or mad that James hit the shot,” Howard continued . “I think all of us were focused. That could have been the season right there. I think everybody made a big deal out of nothing. We were very happy that we won the game, but we were kind of upset that we put ourselves in that position to where it took a last-second shot for us to win the game when we clearly had them beat from the beginning of the game.
“For all those people saying we weren’t happy and excited that James hit the shot, shut up.”
It’s a reasonable explanation, but Howard has to understand how it looked from afar. It doesn’t take too much imagining to speculate that Howard wasn’t thrilled about being benched in crunch time because of his free throw shooting, especially after Howard was labeled in some circles as “disinterested” after game two. We’ll take his explanation at face value, though, and all that talk would go away if Houston wins again on Sunday.
