In our ongoing series, CBSSports.com's Eye On Basketball will take a look at contending teams as they head into the NBA playoffs. First up: the Houston Rockets.
Patrick Beverley knew what people were saying about his team in September. The Houston Rockets had come close to retaining Chandler Parsons, adding Chris Bosh and forming a superteam. A few months earlier, they’d lost in the first round to the Portland Trail Blazers after a 54-win regular season. In their failed pursuit of another star to pair with Dwight Howard and James Harden, they’d sacrificed Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin. The prevailing wisdom was that Houston had taken a huge step back.
In Beverley’s mind, though, people were underestimating what the Rockets could do with some internal improvement and Trevor Ariza. The criticism was expected, but he looked forward to the challenge of advancing farther than before.
“People think that we lost Chandler and we lost O, J-Lin, it just wasn’t a good offseason,” Beverley said then. “We’re happy with what we have now, and what we have are tough guys with good character. I’m all about hard work pays off, and those are the type of guys we have on the team.”
The full-court-pressuring tornado from the west side of Chicago was right about the Rockets. They have a good chance of surpassing last year’s win total, thanks to Harden — the MVP according to many, including at least one other candidate — turning into an unrestrainable amalgamation of Gilbert Arenas and Manu Ginobili in their primes. Improbably, incredibly, they’ve improved their defensive rating from 12th in the league to fifth despite having next to no rotational continuity and Howard missing 39 games. This banged-up squad isn’t a superteam; it’s a resilient one stuck together with super glue.
Beverley had season-ending surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist. He’s now reduced to a cheerleader while Houston tries to grab the second seed and compete for a championship. Again, some think this is it, the Rockets aren’t real contenders anymore. Others believe they can survive the loss of their defensive tone setter like they’ve survived everything else.
“It’s tough, man,” Houston swingman Corey Brewer said, shaking his head on the day the news was announced. “That’s horrible. You never want anybody to get hurt. And it’s even worse when it’s your starting point guard. So it’s tough for us. We can’t put our heads down, though, because stuff happens in the NBA. You gotta keep pushing, keep fighting. You gotta keep winning.”
At 51-24, that’s exactly what the dogged Rockets have been doing.
K.J. McDaniels raised his arms in the air on Monday, celebrating the victory he’d earned. The forward has played only 18 minutes in the six weeks since being acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers, but he was once a part of the Rookie of the Year conversation. McDaniels had just defeated fellow first-year high-flyer Nick Johnson in FIFA on a PlayStation 4 in the visitors locker room at the Air Canada Centre. Asked which teams they used, McDaniels didn’t know.
Johnson explained that he’d lost with BVB, a team he’d chosen because he’d watched a video about midfielder Marco Reus the night before. McDaniels learned that he’d played with Bayern Munich. Clint Capela, yet another athletic rookie, took his headphones off when Johnson called his name. The Swiss big man confirmed that yes, he had heard of Reus, laughed and went back to his music. Then it was time for a rematch.
A short time later, Johnson made his 24th appearance of his NBA career. He committed five fouls, but looked like he belonged defensively. Due to a bevy of frontcourt injuries — Josh Smith and Joey Dorsey started, and there were no other backup bigs available — Capela played 19 minutes and put on a dunking exhibition. McDaniels received his usual DNP-CD. While Houston narrowly lost to the Toronto Raptors, it seemed preposterous that anyone had accused this group of lacking depth.
Brewer bolstered the bench when he arrived in December, escaping the lottery-bound Minnesota Timberwolves in a trade. The veteran couldn’t be happier that he’s playing for something, and he loves the Rockets’ fast-paced, 3-point-heavy offensive system. He is one of 13 players who have started for Houston, and he knows there’s a silver lining to the fact that their presumed starting lineup of Beverley, Harden, Ariza, Terrence Jones and Howard has played a total of 25 minutes in two games together.
“It means we’re going to be tough just because we can play when we don’t have certain guys and, when guys are having bad games, other guys can fill in,” Brewer said. “In the playoffs, you never know what could happen — foul trouble, injuries, whatever. You can’t wait. You get one day off, you gotta play. And for us, we have a bunch of guys who can step in and we don’t lose a beat.”
Approaching the postseason, the Rockets might be the most difficult team to project precisely because they haven’t been whole. Howard is finally back in the lineup after his knee injury. So too is Jones, who suffered a partially collapsed lung two weeks ago. Houston’s plan is to get them back in the flow and gather some of that much-talked-about momentum in a couple weeks’ time.
One way to look at this is the Rockets will have to make adjustments. They’ll have to get used to Howard’s presence in the post; they’ll have to figure out how to make up for Beverley’s absence. Another perspective is that no one knows exactly how good they can be with a fully functional Howard, Harden and this particular cast of characters. Donatas Motiejunas, who has flourished on the block, will expect minutes at power forward, as will Jones and Josh Smith. Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni provide two completely different looks at the point.
If you’re a fan looking for favorable matchups, you wouldn’t want them to encounter the Golden State Warriors, who beat Houston by double digits four times. Nobody wants to face that juggernaut, though, and finishing second would ensure the Rockets won’t see them before the conference finals.
Getting that No. 2 seed is also ideal because it would likely set Houston up for a series against the Dallas Mavericks. The Rockets face their Texas rivals on Thursday, and they’ve beaten them two of the three times they’ve met this year. Parsons’ new team is a formidable foe, but inconsistency means the Mavs are nowhere near as scary as the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.
Houston and the Memphis Grizzlies have identical records at the moment, with the Grizzlies holding the tiebreaker. It’s still possible that the Rockets could drop back from third to fourth or fifth, where they could meet the Los Angeles Clippers or have a rematch with Portland. The Clippers and their shaky defense would probably be preferable, but no one in Houston’s locker room is looking at it in those terms.
“I kind of know where we’re at just ‘cause us and Memphis are real close,” Brewer said. “We don’t want to lose games, we want to get that second seed, but we’re not really thinking about that.
“We know we can compete against anybody,” Brewer continued. “Anytime we step on the court, we feel like we can win. We’re not worried about that, we’re just trying to play better.”
The Rockets aren’t championship favorites, but they have all the confidence they need. They're already accustomed to exceeding expectations.