USAToday: Best team on the planet? Rockets back in top form in Game 3 rout of Jazz

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ack-top-form-game-3-rout-utah-jazz/583301002/

SALT LAKE CITY — When Houston coach Mike D’Antoni made the slow stroll from the Rockets locker room to the press conference room for a pregame briefing Friday night, you’d never know there was a world of basketball pressure heaped on his shoulders.

The notion of the NBA’s best regular season team suffering a Game 3 loss to the Utah Jazz in these Western Conference semifinals would be kerosene for the critics, with the past playoff failings of D’Antoni, James Harden and Chris Paul sure to be discussed by the masses if Houston trailed 2-1. Yet there was the 66-year-old moseying toward the media, calmly highlighting the many fixable ways in which his team fell short the last time around while, true to form, squeezing in a few jokes along the way with that West Virginia charm.

A few hours later, not long after defending champion Golden State was routed by New Orleans in its series and the pressure had shifted to the Warriors’ side of the Western Conference ledger, D’Antoni’s calm would prove prudent.

The Rockets, winners by a 113-92 score that wasn’t nearly that close, are looking like the best team on the planet again.

Here’s how they did it …

OFF TO THE RACES

By the time the first quarter came to an end with the Rockets up 39-22, a most unexpected development had emerged. The Rockets, whose offense these past few years was built almost exclusively on three-pointers and shots at the rim, were mastering the midrange shot.

Playoff basketball – not to mention the intimidating presence of Jazz big man/likely Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert in the middle – has a way of forcing change because of the high stakes. And so, D’Antoni’s Rockets decided to break protocol and take what the Jazz defense was offering.

Never mind that the Rockets broke the NBA record for three-pointers attempted for the second consecutive season (3,470, with second-place Brooklyn at 2,924). And forget how that reputation remained intact during the first seven games of the playoffs (40.9 three-point attempts per game, with Portland second at 32.3). The wrinkle came inside the arc.

As tracked by Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, 12 of their 39 first-quarter points were from the midrange. There were floaters from the free-throw line and pull-ups inside the arc – rarities on any other Rockets night. And there were the sloppy Jazz, giving up six first-quarter turnovers to Houston’s zero while allowing the Rockets to hit 16 of 26 shots and shooting just eight of 21 themselves.

Houston pushed the lead to 70-40 at halftime, but this wasn’t a case of the Rockets stars taking over. Six players had at least eight points by then, with Eric Gordon leading the way (17 points). By the end, Harden (25 points, 12 assists) and Gordon (25 points on eight of 13 shooting) had done the heaviest lifting.

DEFENDING DONOVAN

To say that Jazz rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell had his worst game of the playoffs is an understatement.

Not only did he finish with a playoff-low 10 points on four of 16 shooting, but the playmaking that was such a huge part of Utah’s Game 2 win in Houston wasn’t part of the repertoire this time (three assists). Entering play, Mitchell was sixth among all playoff scorers (26.1 points per game), trailing only Harden, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant.

With point guard Ricky Rubio still out with a hamstring injury, the Jazz are hurting for consistent offensive options outside of Mitchell and small forward Joe Ingles. Yet after scoring a career-high 27 points in Game 2, Ingles was also held in check (six points on two of 10 shooting with five turnovers).

HARDEN PLUS PAUL, YET AGAIN, EQUALS A WIN

Story lines tend to swing in dramatic fashion this time of year, and that certainly would have been the case had the Rockets headed into Game 4 with a series deficit. But anyone who saw the Rockets blow teams away all season knows they bounce back as well as any team, as they haven't lost consecutive games in which Harden and Paul both played since Dec. 20 and Dec. 22.