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Takeaways from the Rockets’ 96-89 loss to the San Antonio Spurs:
Somehow, conversation always seems to get back to Carmelo Anthony. No matter what happens, however, it should be clear the latest Rockets’ offensive debacle cannot be blamed on him.
Anthony sat out Saturday’s game with an illness. But with the Rockets’ offense crashing again, Anthony was still a focus as the Rockets hope to find a way out of the wreckage.
ESPN reported during the second half on Saturday that there have been conversations about his role. Two individuals familiar with the talks said the Rockets are weighing where he fits with Eric Gordon back from his injury and rookie Gary Clark showing enough, especially defensively, to want to keep playing him.
Anthony cannot be blamed for the Rockets’ struggles, but he has not been a solution either. That might be much too much to expect at this point given how badly the Rockets have played offensively. Anthony has struggled at times, most obviously on Thursday when he went 1 of 11. But Saturday’s loss when he was not on the floor showed how far the Rockets offense had fallen.
The Rockets somehow stayed in the game until the final minutes. They were within one with three minutes left. But the offense that was the NBA’s best last season was awful. With the schedule getting tougher – the Rockets face the Pacers in the second half of a back-to-back on Sunday before taking on the Nuggets and Warriors – the Rockets have a long climb out, all while figuring out what to do with Anthony.
Carmelo’s role
Asked about Carmelo Anthony’s role, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said simply, “What he was doing. Carmelo’s been great. What he was doing is backing up the four.”
The “great” was a reference to Anthony’s attitude and acceptance of his role. But with Eric Gordon back and the Rockets planning to keep playing Gary Clark, Anthony’s minutes were about to be cut.
Anthony has not been much worse than many of the Rockets’ regulars offensively. He is making 40.5 percent of his shots, 32.8 percent of his 3s. On this season’s Rockets, that can be described as typical. But defensively, he has been predictably dreadful.
The Rockets believed they could make that work by limiting Anthony to a role as a backup power forward, playing more when matchups allow. With the offense so terrible, however, the Rockets have had to rely on defense to keep games close in the hopes they can steal wins late, as in their most recent win, Monday in Indianapolis.
It might seem to make sense to add a talented scorer to a team struggling to score, but the Rockets are never going to be good enough offensively if James Harden, Chris Paul and Eric Gordon keep misfiring. Harden and Gordon were a combined 4 of 27 from 3s. Paul, who had missed his previous 16 attempts, made his first two and then took just one more all night.
At least for now, the Rockets cannot sacrifice anything defensively. That could leave Anthony out of the mix or give him far fewer minutes than the 29.4 he has averaged to start the season. If they are to bench him entirely, it would figure there would be conversations. Even if they are to play an undrafted rookie ahead of him they will have to talk that over.
Anthony has gone along with coming off the bench. He has accepted being a backup to P.J. Tucker while James Ennis III starts at small forward. He could understandably balk at barely playing at all.
The illness that kept him out was real. As D’Antoni said while suggesting those around him get their shots, it is cold and flu season. There is plenty of that going around the Rockets’ locker room. But the games will not stop. Anthony will get better. Decisions, and perhaps even agreements about if he wishes to remain in whatever limited role he will have, will be made.
Anthony’s place with the Rockets was always something of an experiment. At 4-7 — the same record as the Rockets had to start the 2015-16 season, the most recent season that also followed a run to the Western Conference Finals – the experiment is not working well for anyone.
Still missing shots
The Rockets were asked again about why they cannot make shots. The subject has gotten repetitive, but what else is there to discuss?
The problems are obvious. The top-rated offense in the NBA last season, the Rockets are 27th this season. They are 29th in scoring, 30th in field goal percentage. They miss layups. They miss the most wide-open of 3s.
The solutions are less clear.
Chris Paul cited the law of averages for the hope that things will turn around. P.J. Tucker said maintaining confidence and working will repair the broken offense. Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni again cited the belief that good shooters will shoot well, the message he has to deliver in his locker room.
That might not seem like much to count on, but the Rockets don’t have much else. They cannot get better shots than they are getting. James Harden is 30 of 62 at the rim this season. It’s one thing to miss 3s – and his 1 of 13 on 3-pointers was not very different from Carmelo Anthony’s much-discussed 1 of 11 overall on Thursday – but Harden is not finishing drives. Chris Paul is missing inside. Eric Gordon, hitting 23.2 percent of his 3s, is missing outside.
This is not because the Rockets did not bring back Luc Mbah a Moute and Trevor Ariza. Chemistry is a valuable and fragile thing, but Paul, Gordon and Harden have made shots for far too long with far too many teammates for a change at one position to have this much impact.
They also have to be the solution. James Ennis III will knock down the occasional 3 and finish on a few backcuts and fast breaks (baduming the Rockets get around to running.) P.J. Tucker can be expected to make the big shots late in a game. Eventually, the Rockets will like to get Gerald Green going and maybe there is still a role for Carmelo Anthony in there somewhere.
But the Rockets have to succeed based on Harden, Paul and Gordon combining for close to 70 points, making a decent percentage of their shots and creating offense around them.
If they do what they have before, chances are the role players will, too. Finding the solution, however, remains a challenge, with the best bet that stealing a few wins, however, they get them, eases pressure enough to be able to shoot again.
Until then, what had been the league’s best offenses is among the worst, with answers as absent as their shooting touch.
Playing defense
Perhaps the Rockets offense was lost when they had to spend so much time repairing the defense. With the Rockets, just about anything seems to be blamed on the defense, even when discussing the failures on the offensive end, so that might be a place to start.
The defense was dreadful to begin the season and has become a relative strength. Part of the shame of their struggles is that they improved where they needed to most, only to fall apart in other ways.
In the five-game road trip, the Rockets have allowed 103.6 points per 100 possessions. That would rank fourth for the season. And unlike some of the teams ahead of them, they did it without ever getting to play the Rockets.
Even with the awful start, the Rockets are 17th defensively, one spot ahead of where they were on the same date a year ago. They have held four-consecutive opponents shy of 100. They limit 3s (giving up the second-fewest in the NBA) and force turnovers. They should be able to turn defense into offense.
That they have not is another sign of how bad they have been offensively. But if they need wins to rebuild confidence and their offense, a tough task when they can’t make shots, the defense will have to lead the way.
They won’t go far that way. Eventually, the offense will have to return. If it does, they might be well-served to have a defense that is far better than what it had been to start the season. If nothing else, they might have shown they can fix what had been broken, as they now must again.
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