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OKLAHOMA CITY – Coach Mike D'Antoni summed up the Houston Rockets attack by one word.
"Yuck," said Antoni after Houston's 98-80 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, as the Rockets had recorded the lowest total points in their history at the time. 39, a regular season game during his tenure of two additional seasons.
Houston was a historically elite offensive team last season when he led the NBA in the offensive standings, averaging 114.0 points for 100 possessions, according to NBA.com/stats. The 4-6 Rockets rank 26th this season (103.9), a puzzling exception to the league's offensive blast.
The Rockets, who improved their defense considerably after five terrible first games on this track, reached a new floor on Thursday night. The defeat marked the third time of the season this season, Houston failed to score at least 90 points, which is the combined total of the previous two seasons at D & # 39; Antoni.
"Really, our offense is anemic," said Dr. Antoni. "I mean, it's bad … I do not know if we're just slumping because we do not believe in what we're [doing]. I do not know. We must find the answers. I can not tell you today, "Oh yes, that's it," and we'll solve it tomorrow. No, we have to work through that and understand what we need to do. But our attack right now is not very good. "
"Dude, part of that probably has to be, I did not shoot," said Paul, who had 10 points out of 4 shots on 11 against Thunder. "I mean, it'll probably help if you see any."
Paul suffers from right elbow pain since the Los Angeles Clippers' defeat on Oct. 26, but refuses to discuss the injury. Since his 32-point performance in a November 2 win against the Brooklyn Nets, Paul has made 11 of 34 attempts and 0 of his 13 points in the 3-point range.
When asked how his elbow affected his shooting, Paul said, "I can shoot, you know what I mean, and other than that, I think playing better will help us play better. "
The Rockets have signed Carmelo Anthony this summer in hopes that the former All-Star could pose an effective threat of complementary scoring. But Anthony was extremely inconsistent and had one of the worst shooting performances of his career when he returned to Oklahoma City, where he played last season.
Anthony scored two points on a shot from 11 on a 20-minute shot, his only goal behind for a goalkeeper despite several appearances in the basket.
"I missed those appearances, some open joints, some open shots that missed me," said Anthony, who averages 13.4 points on a 40.5 percent shot, a tenth better than his worst career career with the Thunder last season. "As a team, we did not shoot well tonight, extremely poor, I think it was a bit of a draw, our energy, our spirit was a little down because of that. "
The discussion on sagging mind was a recurring theme in the Rockets locker room after winning their three-game winning streak, fueled by a strong defense and a tight schedule.
The Rockets failed to maintain a semblance of pace early in the season, while their rotation was erratic due to Paul's suspension for two games and Harden, small forward James Ennis and goaltender Eric Gordon missing several games due to injury.
The Rockets continue to believe that they generate a nice appearance, but are frustrated to have shot so badly, including 3 points (32.7%, 25th in the championship) and in the restricted zone (52.7 %, more than 5% less) than the league average).
"The first thing to do is we had to start imposing our will and having our courage," said Antoni. "It's largely mental energy, we have to find a happy place and then go to competition."
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