NBA in Threes: Devin Booker drops 40; Lakers are red-hot
By Jade Johnson
Houston Rockets – by Michael Saenz
Perhaps you can chalk this loss and performance up to giving James Harden and the rest of the Rockets a Saturday night off in Miami. However, you arrive at a conclusion, it’s certainly disappointing.
Westbrook and Harden were held to a combined 36 percent shooting from the field and never were able to get going. Perhaps what was most troubling – which has been the case for much of the season to start the year – is Houston’s extremely poor defense. I’m not sure they could’ve played any worse on that end of the floor if they tried.
There’s too much ball-watching and not enough real defending going on for the Rockets right now. I’m not sure if that’s fixable at this point in the season, but the good news is that they can’t really get any worse on that end of the floor.
The offense will always be there for the Rockets, but as long as this team simply refuses to try on the defensive end I can’t see them being much of a contender in the Western Conference. Which is not something that was easily predictable just a few weeks ago.