[Feigan] Rockets like the way they are trending

Good piece by Jonathan Feigan


BOSTON — As winning streaks go, the Rockets’ five-game run qualifies as the NBA’s longest, but it does not turn heads, including theirs. It falls well short of last season’s 14- and 17-game surges and is not quite their longest this season.

It is, however, an undeniable indication of how things are trending, with road wins against the Warriors and Celtics, a clean injury report expected soon and the post-season close enough to consider progress potentially more meaningful than just a significant departure from their 11-14 start and fall to 14th in the Western Conference.

“We;re catching a rhythm,” Rockets guard James Harden said. “Throughout the course of the year, we’ve been having a lot of injuries, a lot of ups and downs, but we're finally catching a rhythm on both ends of the floor, and it feels great.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to push, push, push. This is a perfect time to push, push, push and catch a groove going into the postseason.”

They have not entirely undone the damage done with their slow start to the season or the losses when they built and lost large leads. They have remained in fifth in the Western Conference for weeks, but left Boston just one game behind the Trail Blazers and Thunder (with both holding the head-to-head tie-breaker).

“I feel good about it, more about the way we’re playing,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “I thought even when we were down in 14th place, we were going to play well. We got too many great players and too good a guys not to. For whatever reason we just couldn’t get it going early. James carried us for a long time. CP (Chris Paul) is now playing really well. I thought we’d get here, but you always worry about it.”

After the slow start, the goal became more about how they would be playing, rather than where they are seeded when the post-season began. They are not where they want to be in that regard, either, but heading in that direction.


“We’re still fifth. It’s not like we’re shooting up to one or two,” Rockets forward P.J. Tucker said. “But it doesn’t matter for us. We don’t care what place we fall in. We just want to be playing our best basketball in the playoffs.”

The Rockets have not given up on the goal to move up a spot or two, but it has been considered more important to improve defensively and on the boards, strides they have made — especially in the second half of games — has been significant.

In the second half of the five games in the winning streak, they have had the seventh-rated defense in the NBA. They have ranked third in the second half of those games in defensive rebounding percentage.

Making those strides in the second half of games has been essential to get the wins, but the Rockets hope are also the first steps toward more reliably being the sort of team they hope to be when the playoffs begin.


“We’re still building,” Paul said. “We know we need wins, making this playoff push. But for us, what I always say, it’s about the spirit and playing the right way. The spirit’s pretty good. Obviously, winning helps. But the way we’re moving the ball and playing together, we’re building.”

When Paul missed 17 games with a strained hamstring and Clint Capela was lost for 15 games following thumb surgery, the Rockets’ concern was to hang on. When addressing his streak of 32 games scoring at least 30 points, Harden often said the goal was to keep their heads above water. Paul’s return and strong play since the All-Star break and Capela’s return, has changed the goal from just keeping pace to making a move.

“It was kind of tough before because we had so many guys out,” Harden said. “Chris missed a few weeks Clint missed a few weeks. We had guys in and out of the lineup. It feels really, really good to have a full roster and catch a rhythm. And this is the perfect time for it.

“We’re still in fifth place, with an opportunity to climb even higher. It feels good. We’re winning. Guys know their roles. We’re executing. Defensively, we’re helping each other out. We’re talking. That’s what it’s about,”


Kenneth Faried was a late scratch on Sunday when the soreness in his left hip increased after his pregame warmup. Iman Shumpert, who has played just one game since the All-Star break, was considered close to a return. Eric Gordon came back after missing one game with a sore right knee to match his career high with eight 3-pointers and have a strong defensive game against Boston All-Star Kyrie Irving.

“We’re starting something,” P.J. Tucker said. “We still have a lot to go, a lot of growth. But we’re chipping away at it, getting better towards the end like we said we want to do. So we just keep working.

“Everybody knew we weren’t going to finish 14th. That was out. We just had to find ourselves — new team, new roster, a lot of different things. We said all year, even when we were 14th, that we're just going to keep chipping away at it, keep trying to play our best basketball until April and then get ready to roll.”