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SAM AMICK
NBA Playoffs

'Desperate' Rockets turn the tables on Warriors with stifling defense in West finals

Sam Amick
USA TODAY
James Harden (13) and P.J. Tucker (4) force Steph Curry (30) into a wild off-balance shot.

HOUSTON — This is not a drill.

It’s a good, old-fashioned Texas drilling.

The Houston Rockets, this high-octane team that has been known solely for its offensive exploits these past few seasons, are derailing the defending champion Golden State Warriors with the kind of defense they haven’t seen in these parts since Hakeem Olajuwon was roaming the paint.

Houston did it again in a 98-94 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday night at the Toyota Center, where the combination of the Rockets’ switching scheme and the sheer force of will took the Warriors’ identity crisis on the offensive end to yet another level.

The status of Rockets point guard Chris Paul looms large on this front, of course, as he is the head of the defensive snake that improved from 18th in defensive rating last season before his arrival to sixth this time around.

Consider the evidence five games in against the Warriors ...

♦ Before the Warriors scored 92 points in Game 3 and 94 in Game 4, they had averaged 111.8 points in 13 playoff games. They led the league in scoring during the regular season (113.5 points per game).

♦ After averaging 322.7 passes per game during the regular season, this Warriors squad that believes so heavily in ball movement and targets 300 as a magic number of sorts has been forced to change its ways. They have yet to reach the 300 mark in this series, posting an average of 269.8 for the series, according to NBA.com/stats. The Warriors' Game 5 passing mark of 257 was the lowest one yet against Houston and their second lowest of the playoffs (they had 256 in the Game 4 loss against San Antonio in the first round).

♦ The Warriors, who averaged a league-best 29.3 assists in the regular season, are averaging 18.2 assists in this series. Kevin Durant’s decline in this department has been the most stark, as he is averaging just two assists per game after a regular season in which his 5.4 mark was just a tenth away from matching his career high. His individual passing total in Game 5 of 23 was his lowest of the series and well below his regular season average of 42.

So now that we’re deep enough into this series to call this a trend, it’s enough to make you wonder: Do the Rockets simply want this more than the Warriors?

MORE FROM GAME 5

"Oh, we’re hungry," Houston guard Eric Gordon told USA TODAY Sports. "That’s no question. We want it bad. We really do. We want it bad. I’m not going to say we want it more than them, but I’ll tell you, we’re desperate. We didn’t even play a good game tonight, and we won.

"When we’re physical, I really, truly do believe we can slow down anybody. It’s hard to stop them, but I just think we have the tools. Everybody’s just so geared to seeing them get to the Finals four years in a row, and this is the first time they see a team that’s just as hungry and just as good as they are."

Ask any coach at any level about the most important part of playing defense, and they’ll talk about effort. But there’s an inevitable connection between sweat equity and desire, and only the Warriors know why they’re trailing so badly in this department at the moment.

Maybe it’s the mental fatigue that comes with a four-year run of dominance. Maybe it’s the natural complacency that creeps in after you’ve won a championship (or two, in the case of the Warriors who were around before Durant arrived last summer). But for all the talk of the Rockets’ scheme and how it has worked wonders so far, the overlooked truth is that they’re simply outworking the Warriors.

Loose balls, floor burns, fearless guarding from the beginning of the shot clock until the end? It’s the Rockets. Highlight blocks that just so happened to take place in front of Olajuwon himself? That was Clint Olajuwon, err, Capela, as Rockets guard Gerald Green joked he should be renamed.

"Ninety-four points (against) a team like that?" Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. "The guys are trying to find a way, and they did."

This wasn’t quite the way the Rockets did it during the 65-win regular season, what with James Harden having missed all 11 of his three-pointers and the Rockets shooting 37.2% overall. But if it means they’re one step closer to the NBA Finals, they’ll take it.

"Whoever can buckle down and get stops consecutively and create opportunities with their defense is going to win or have a chance at wining games," Harden said. "The last two games, we’ve done that."

Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.

 

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