NBA PM: It’s Do or Die for the Rockets

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It’s Do or Die for the Rockets

After easily handling the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, the Houston Rockets are facing yet another elimination game heading into Game 6 tonight on the road against the Los Angeles Clippers.

While the Rockets are playing to see another day, the Clippers are trying to make the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. That means the Rockets will have to play near-perfect basketball again tonight against a very determined team on their home court.

Houston took Game 5 in their building after losing the two games in Los Angeles by 58 combined points. The Clippers dominated them in nearly every phase during Games 3 and 4 and seemed to eliminate any chance the Rockets had at coming back in the series.

One of the biggest takeaways from Sunday night’s Game 4 loss was the game plan that was executed by head coach Kevin McHale and the rest of the team. McHale opted to launch the ‘Hack-A-Jordan’ method by intentionally fouling DeAndre Jordan. Jordan attempted 34 free throws in the game. While he converted on just 12-of-28 free throws during those trips to the line (and 14-of-34 all game), the Rockets were unable to capitalize on those missed free throws.

The Rockets are arguably at their best when the offense is playing uptempo and getting easy trips to the line. With the pace slowed down significantly during the Hack-A-Jordan portion of the game, the Rockets were forced to play in a half-court offense, which is not a strong aspect of their game and the results showed.

After seeing how quickly the Rockets were able to put away the Mavericks last series, many see this round as Houston simply falling apart or as a sign that this team is done. The Clippers deserve some credit as well. Their bench struggles have been well documented, but they have performed exceptionally well this series (as well as last series versus the Spurs) with solid contributions from Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers and, most recently, Spencer Hawes. Chris Paul has bounced back from his hamstring injury and looks as close to being fully healthy as he can be.

While James Harden was still able to put up 21 points on Sunday, the team didn’t receive great contributions from other role players on the team. The bench scoring between the two teams heavily favored the Clippers (41-23), but is even worse if Nick Johnson’s contributions are withheld as he scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for the Rockets when the game was well out of reach.

Another area of concern for the Rockets was how the Clippers played Dwight Howard. Jordan and Blake Griffin did an excellent job of limiting Howard in Game 4 by holding him to a playoff-low seven points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field. The duo teamed up and battled Howard hard all game, which left him frustrated, and he was eventually tossed from the game after picking up two technical fouls.

Howard was in foul trouble all game as he picked up two quick fouls just four minutes into the game. He’d end up playing just 18 minutes in the contest. The Clippers have frustrated Howard all series long and have managed to take him out of the game during critical times. Howard was even caught on video inviting a heckling fan to come out onto the court and he was fined for shoving former his Orlando Magic teammate Matt Barnes.

In addition to limiting Howard, the Clippers have done a great job of defending Harden. J.J. Redick has guarded Harden for the majority of the series and has made the game more difficult for him by taking away easy trips to the line. Redick limited Harden to just five free throw attempts in Game 3 and 10 in Game 4 while also forcing him to miss six straight shots at one point during the game. This has been especially important as Harden scores a lot of his points at the free throw line.

With a must-win coming tonight for the Rockets, they’ll be looking to pick up where they left off from Tuesday night. Harden is coming off of his first playoff triple-double after scoring 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Howard stayed out of foul trouble while scoring 20 points and hauling in 15 rebounds in 32 minutes of action while Trevor Ariza dropped 22 points and Jason Terry chipped in 11 points and seven assists. With the starters playing well, the bench stepped up and outscored the Clippers’ bench after getting demolished on Sunday.

In all, the Rockets shot 54 percent from the field to take their second win of the series and to stay alive for Game 6. The Rockets face perhaps their most challenging game of the season tonight in Los Angeles as the Clippers will have the benefit of playing in front of their home crowd. If the Rockets are going to force Game 7 back in Houston, they’ll have to play the same way as they did on Tuesday with an uptempo pace and an inside-out attack.

The Rockets are coming out tonight with the mindset that if they can force a Game 7 back home, they’ll have a great chance to take the series win.

Wall OK After Playing in Game 5

Despite losing a close game to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night in the final seconds, the Washington Wizards received some good news following the game: John Wall suffered no setbacks in his return.

Wall made a surprise return in Game 5 after suffering five non-displaced fractures in his left hand in the opening game of the series. After missing the last three games of the Conference Semifinals, Wall turned in an exceptional performance given the injury by scoring 15 points while adding seven assists, four rebounds, four steals and two blocks in 37 minutes.

“It was incredible,” Wizards head coach Randy Wittman said of Wall’s game. “Seriously. If you think back to where he was … 10 days ago to where you couldn’t tell he had five fingers because it was so swollen to finding five fractures to playing the game that he played.

“He’s the toughest kid I have been around. I think that was evidenced last night to come back from the injury that he has and to really not just try to play but play the way John plays with reckless abandon.”

Wittman told reporters in a conference call on Thursday that Wall suffered no swelling in his hand/wrist after the game and is expecting him to play in Game 6 on Friday night in Washington.

Wall nearly made the play of the game on Wednesday night had it not been for Al Horford’s offensive putback that put the Hawks ahead with just 1.9 seconds remaining. Wall denied Hawks point guard Dennis Schroder’s shot on the final possession of the game for the Hawks, but Horford was able to get free for the offensive rebound to put the Hawks up for good.

Despite the positive lift from Wall in his return, the Wizards will now turn to a elimination game on Friday. The Wizards led by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter on Wednesday, and will now figure out what went wrong and how to correct it.

“The sting of this game [is] going to motivate us for Game 6,” Paul Pierce said. “Guys are going to be really fired up knowing we let one get away. We are going to go back home with aspirations of winning and making another trip to Atlanta.”