How the Rockets have 'rested' James Harden in advance of playoffs

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Photo: Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle

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The Rockets plan for James Harden to be fresh in the playoffs is more than just taking a game off or playing a minute or so less a game.


Less than a week before James Harden was given Tuesday night off, he insisted he didn't need to sit out for rest. He was right.

Harden was held out of Tuesday's game, which no doubt pleased those concerned with the Rockets' post-season prospects as much as the night he dropped 60 points on the Magic in a triple-double. The only thing better than a night off, the argument goes, would be a week off, maybe a spring break beach vacation. Nothing better prepares a player for the NBA playoffs, apparently, than becoming a couch potato for a while.


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A night off for Harden and Clint Capela won't hurt, any more than having Chris Paul and Luc Mbah a Moute sit out for three games with soreness that would not have kept them out of games the Rockets needed. There is enough time to get them back to full strength, though while something is gained with time off, something is lost while trying to prepare for the time of the season the best is needed.

The idea that skipping a game in March will be the difference in a game in late May is perhaps just desperation talking, some of the fallout from last season's Game 6, But it would be like skipping dessert on Thanksgiving and calling it a diet.
An occasional day off can be useful, but only as part of six months spent monitoring workloads that go well beyond minutes played per game.

The Rockets have been working on ways to keep Harden from hitting that post-season wall long before they told him to stay home on Tuesday.

"It's probably the foremost thing on our mind," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Having Chris now, it's easier. Last year, we had to try to get a good seed. With Chris, it's not as much about minutes as (not) expecting James to make every play. That's helped. And we've been able, especially early, to win a lot of games and give him rest the last five, six minutes.

"I think the stress level is the biggest thing because it's not on his shoulders to make every play offensively. I think it's a combination of two or three factors. Us winning by big margins, Chris coming and taking stress level off him, having more guys that can do the playmaking have all helped."

Harden has played fewer minutes than he ever has as a starter, but that's still just about a minute per game fewer than last season (two fewer per game since the All-Star break.) D'Antoni's point about the stress that comes with the burden he carried last season is fair and clear, but the effort to have Harden and the Rockets' other regulars ready for the postseason is not about box score stats or the subjective judgement about how they appear on game nights.

As with rehab timetables, when no medical professional consults anything as rudimentary as a calendar to evaluate progress coming back from sprains and strains, measuring rest given and needed is about science as much as art.

"It started in training camp, using the diagnostic things and analytics stuff we have and consulting with experts," Rockets vice president Keith Jones. "We take all our (data) from every practice and every game and send it to other people to see what's best for guys to rest.

"Mike's been fantastic with practices and not having shootarounds to give guys rest. Coming down to the end, we have looked to see where were at health wise to see if we should give days off."
Rockets players wear monitors for every practice, shootaround and workout, with "load" information collected, studied and sent to consultants to measure how bodies are working to help determine when players need to skip or reduce practices or even games.

As often as coaches cite information that doesn't show up in the box score, measurements of heart rates and heart rate recovery times or consumption of energy sources during training or playing to provide guidance on recovery periods needed rarely come to mind. But to a medical team, that is far more valuable than the numbers of minutes played or a guess that a sprained ankle needs two to three weeks to heal.

All that, however, won't change that the post-season – if it lasts as long for the Rockets as they hope – is a grind. There are no back-to-backs or odd travel schedules, as with the regular season, but no matter how rested and ready a team might be when the playoffs begin, they are tough and get tougher. Harden will likely have to carry the Rockets to some wins, as he has in past season, and then bounce back quickly.

He did not back up phenomenal play in Game 1 in San Antonio in Game 2. He did not finish his performance in Game 5 down the stretch and in overtime, or in Game 6. It is wrong to ignore success to focus only on failure, as it has been to cite his play with the Thunder in the Finals without acknowledging his role in getting them there (to say nothing of all that has changed in the past six seasons.) But those questions will remain with him until answered in the post-season spotlight.

He will not, however, make or miss a last-minute shot in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals because he did not get sweaty on Tuesday. He could benefit from this week's break in the schedule extended by one day. The Rockets hope he'll make that shot for many reasons, including the six months spent preparing for that day.

 

The Rockets moved two steps closer to full strength with James Harden and Clint Capela returning to practice on Thursday and expected to play Friday against the Suns, with Luc Mbah a Moute upgraded to questionable with a sore left knee that kept him out for three games.

Harden and Capela were both initially considered out for rest, but by Tuesday, the Rockets cited nagging issues that had not kept them out before.


Asked about sitting out while healthy enough to play, Harden said, “I was?”



When asked if he was healthy enough to play, Harden offered little insight other than indicating that the sore right hand that he had been treating for several weeks had since improved with the night off.


“I don’t know,” Harden said. “I feel good now, though.”