The Houston Rockets have been one of the most surprisingly impressive teams in the NBA this season, but that hasn’t stopped head coach Mike D’Antoni from coming down hard on his players after uninspiring performances.
Following a 117-108 loss to the Indiana Pacers Monday night, D’Antoni called his team “soft” for the second time in about a month. He was particularly irritated with the way the Rockets fell apart after leading 43-26 at one point in the second quarter.
“It was like five or six straight plays of being soft,” D’Antoni said, via Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. “Soft on getting back on defense, soft on rebounding and getting an outlet pass, just soft. Now that we let them get back in the game, they missed a lot of shots on their own in the very first [quarter] and that wasn’t going to last the whole game, you knew that. But again, we’ve just got to have a little bit more fight. There’s just not enough fight out there. There’s just not enough.”
The Pacers grabbed 55 rebounds compared to Houston’s 39. The Rockets have been out-rebounded in three of their last four games, and even James Harden conceded that a lack of “heart” is the reason for that. Newcomer Lou Williams, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers last week, agreed with his coach’s harsh assessment.
“That’s pretty accurate,” Williams said. “I think early on we made some shots, got a big lead and probably felt like the game was coming to a squeeze, and we kind of got lax and they picked up their intensity and I don’t think we matched it after that.”
The Rockets shot just over 36 percent from the floor on Monday and made only 10-of-45 shots from three-point range. They rank second in the NBA behind only the Golden State Warriors with 115.0 points scored per game, but their 108.4 points allowed per game ranks in the bottom seven of the league.
If you read the way D’Antoni ripped his team last month, you get the idea that he sees a pattern he doesn’t like. Even at 42-19, the Rockets are going to have to tighten up on defense if they want to succeed in the postseason.
