The Houston Rockets chose to end ties with coach Kevin McHale on Wednesday after starting the season with a 4-7 record. They tried to rectify that problem Wednesday, firing McHale after four-plus seasons and naming J.B. Bickerstaff as his interim replacement.
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“I think it’s to get back to who we were, who we’ve been”. What is Capela’s ceiling? Right now Houston is 29th in defensive efficiency allowing more than 109 points per game. A man who took the team to the WESTERN FINAL but clearly couldn’t defend and Kevin kept missing shot after shot. “Who we were when we had our most success”. “We know but we aren’t in a good place and… we’re going to make changes until we win”.
Is there reason for long-term concern?
Finch is also in his fifth season with the Rockets after spending two seasons as head coach of the Rockets National Basketball Association Development League affiliate, Rio Grande Valley.
On the day that he turned 40, the Dominican designated hitter said in a video posted on The Players’ Tribune that the 2016 season will be his last.
Nonetheless, Harden’s declining efficiency has come hand-in-hand with a spike in 3-point attempts. We got a lot of open looks. Situations like this, where Harden shoots a contested 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining on the clock despite there being no rim protector in sight, have become a rather normal occurrence. He finished with 26 points, three assists, three steals and five treys, and there probably won’t be a better time to sell high this season. While the early returns aren’t necessarily encouraging, it makes sense in theory. As for the rest of the season, there’s much more to be told. Still, their point-differential is positive this season, meaning on average, they score more than their opponents. The Rockets will have to hope Bickerstaff can fix them before it’s too late. Simply put, Harden’s shot isn’t falling, he’s creating less for his team mates and they are noticing. Whether it was Harden who couldn’t figure out how to work with Lawson or Lawson not able to figure out how to work with Harden. The Rockets even have issues on the offensive side of the ball.
Hours after the unexpected firing of Kevin McHale, Harden shrugged off his slow start following his MVP runner-up season with 45 points, including all nine for Houston in overtime of a 108-103 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. Rather than settling for 3-pointers in isolation, he used his size and strength advantage to bully Portland’s back court in the post. “Everybody that you hear from loves working with him, loves being around him, so to me, from the outside looking in, it looks like 11 games in making a rash decision, but it’s not my call”.
Danilo Gallinari scored just nine points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field, but that’s not really a surprise when you consider that he was defended by Leonard. It also took a few heroics from both Harden and Brewer in the fourth quarter to dig the Rockets out of a huge hole.
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“We believe in this team”. He is the engine that keeps them going and the Rockets need him to find his groove sooner rather than later. Wednesday’s performance was an encouraging step forward.
