James Harden starred as the Houston Rockets edged the Portland Trail Blazers 108-103 in overtime after coach Kevin McHale was sacked earlier on Wednesday.
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The Rockets fired McHale after the team, which had reached the National Basketball Association playoffs for three straight years, opened the season 4-7. In his place will be assistant J.B. Bickerstaff who takes over on an interim basis for the rest of the year as reported by Sports Illustrated.
“We probably had more meetings in last six weeks than in my previous four years here”. Hire Jeff Van Gundy, said one, calling out the successful former Knicks and Rockets coach.
Now, the Rockets had their own, and the players are keeping it under wraps as ESPN’s Calvin Watkins reported. We would never know whether Harden or the players asked for his head on a silver platter, but GM Daryl Morey simply needed to do what was best for the team. After his playing career, he spent several years as an executive with the Timberwolves before coaching the team for parts of the 2004-05 and 2008-09 seasons after coaches were fired.
“‘The BasedGod curse'” is real the Rockets coach was punished for signing off on the J harden bobble heads doing Lil B cooking dance, the Bay Area rapper gloated on Twitter in the wake of McHale’s firing.
James Harden scored all nine of the Rockets’ points in overtime to help them end a four-game skid. On Wednesday the Rockets made a move at head coach and at point guard.
But entering the league and joining the Rockets, Dekker found himself last on the depth chart behind veterans Trevor Ariza and Corey Brewer.
The Rockets had high hopes for this season after advancing to the Western Conference finals last season. To me, from the outside looking in, it looks like 11 games in making a rash decision. “We’ve got to get better”. The vanilla offense likely wouldn’t be too much of an issue for Houston because it has some extremely talented offensive players like Harden, but the minutes thing could be a huge issue, especially when you consider how many injuries Houston has already dealt with this season.
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Backup guard Patty Mills of Australia scored 17 points, veteran Tim Duncan added 12 points and 11 rebounds and forward LaMarcus Aldridge scored 11 points with 12 rebounds.
