The Houston Rockets rush from victory to victory and have now won ten games at a time. The backcourt around James Harden and Chris Paul harmonizes beautifully. Nevertheless, the rockets have not even reached their full potential.
The night from Saturday to Sunday was finally here. The common NBA fan got an impression of how Chris Paul and James Harden could work together in the crunchtime for the Houston Rockets. The Texans entered the final section with a 14 point gap in the Portland Trail Blazers. Thanks to their brilliant backcourts, the match could still be turned around and the guests decided the section with 40:19 for themselves.
In the previous games, however, the rockets had blown away everything that came before the shotgun. Paul has played eleven games for Houston so far, all of which have been won with an average of almost 17 points! The team of Mike D’ Antoni mutated to Blowout City and now with a record of 21-4 greets sovereignly from the top of the Western Conference.
Of course the Schedule, with the exception of the opening match in Oakland, was quite good with the Texans, but in the past the rockets stumbled above all on smaller rivals and missed a better balance. The game in Portland was yet another proof of this, they could have easily and willingly allowed themselves to go broke, but instead the Rockets took this victory with a great effort.
“Everyone has talked about it, or asked:’ What are they going to do?’, Paul said after the game with obvious satisfaction to the reporters present. Of course, the question was whether the rockets could play Crunchtime at all or whether Harden and Paul would take the ball out of each other’s hands. There were no references before when CP3 was fit – it took nine games together before Paul and Harden were “in the Clutch”together for the first time, i. e. in the last five minutes with a maximum difference of 5 points.
“We’re still experimenting a little more,”Paul admitted. In Portland and also against the New Orleans Pelicans, Houston could win tight games in the new line-up. Blazers coach Terry Stotts tried to cover the numerous capable shooters, but this worked only to a limited extent. There was plenty of space for the beard and CP3 in the zone, which alternately attacked the respective mismatch after switches. The duo scored 25 points (9/10 FG) in the final quarter alone, mainly by laying and free-throwing.
5 points less at home against the cars for the new dream duo. The result was the same: Houston rolled over New Orleans 34:20 in the final section and clinched the tenth win in a row. It was Paul who brought the rockets back and Harden again, who took over in Crunchtime, as Mike D’ Antoni was pleased to see,”Chris hoisting us back into the game was unbelievable. In the end, James put the lid back on it.”
Ränkespiele, envy or Hero Ball could not be seen at all. While Paul was known in the past for being too much of a burden to shoulder, he let Harden be allowed to do so and set himself up for possible chances. Even though Harden didn’t always deliver the ball, CP3 got so much attention from the defense that it created space for his backcourt partner.
“After the game, James and I talked about how cool it was that we scored again and again,”Paul said after the Portland game. Trevor Ariza described it a little differently:”We have a scoring anomaly in Harden and a real teacher in Paul. It was impressive watching them.”
On average, the two of them stand together on the court for only 20 minutes per game. D’ Antoni has already announced that he will be staggering the playing time of his stars and has been consistently implementing it so far. With the exception of the garbage time, one of the two playmakers is on the field at all times and keeps the rockets open. There is no rest for the opponent.
The protagonists around the two all-stars, on the other hand, are constantly changing. Although D’ Antoni usually only uses eight or nine players, they offer the coach plenty of flexibility. While in Portland the ultra small lineup with P. J. Tucker on Center led to success, it was against the Pelicans the big line-up with Clint Capela who won the victory.
Page 1: Harden & Paul – Kings of Crunchtime
Page 2: Adaptation of Paul and Harden’s MVP application