NBA PLAYOFFS
Rockets-Wolves Game 2 recap: Houston rolls 102-82 despite terrible night from Harden
Apr 19, 2018, 6:22 am
James Harden could not buy a basket in Game 2, yet the Rockets rolled on. Rockets.com
James Harden shot 2 of 18, Houston shot below 37% as a team, and the Rockets dismantled the Minnesota Timberwolves 102-82 to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their round one playoff matchup.
The Rockets knew that in order to avoid another close call like Game 1 everyone would need to contribute alongside Harden. Planning, however, is different from execution, and Houston stumbled drastically out of the gate. Starting forward P.J. Tucker found himself in foul trouble early in the quarter, forcing him to sit in exchange for Gerald Green. The Rockets shot an abysmal 5-of-25 in the quarter, including a 2-of-9 three-point range effort. Harden’s performance was somehow even more worrisome, as he was 1-of-7 for the quarter. The Timberwolves pounded the inside and showed a relentless tenacity throughout the quarter, while shooting 9-of-23 as a team. What was most alarming was that it wasn’t Minnesota’s defense that was stifling the Rockets, it was simply awful shooting.
In a rare sub 20-point first quarter showing for the Rockets, it seemed like there was a justifiable cause for concern for the No. 1 seed. That was when the Houston team that posted 65 wins in the regular season showed up. Led by Green and Chris Paul, the Rockets went on a quarter-long rampage, out scoring the suddenly ice-cold Timberwolves 37-17. Harden remained in his slump, and stretched his cold streak to 1-of-12 before heading to the locker room. At the same time, Green had racked up 12 points in 14 minutes, on 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
Houston cruised to a victory from that point on, despite Harden’s individual shooting struggles. Eric Gordon continued his slow playoff start, shooting 3-of-13 for 9 points; however Paul and Green picked up the slack, contributing 27 and 21 points respectively.
The same could not be said for the Timberwolves, who were expecting a bounce back game from star center Karl Anthony-Towns after scoring only 8 points in game one. Towns fired out of the gate in Game 2, scoring 5 points in the first 6 minutes. Bizarrely enough, that would turn out to be the only points he would contribute. After an incredible collective first quarter, the Timberwolves went ice cold from the field. Forward Nemanja Bjelica led the team with 16 points, and was one of only three Timberwolves that scored in double digits.
Takeaways
This is not another Rockets playoff team of old.
Game 1 looked very reminiscent of the frustrating playoff Rockets we’ve all come to know; that being a one-dimensional offense where everyone on the team fades under the lights and Harden is forced to play hero-ball for 48 minutes. If Harden had performed like he did in Game 2 on any previous Rockets playoff team, the foregone conclusion would be that they lost. Instead, we watched as Paul and Green assumed command of the offense and soundly eviscerated a porous Minnesota defense. This comes on the heels of a 24 point performance from Clint Capela as well. In two games the Rockets have proven that they no longer live by the Harden and die by the Harden. And just wait until Gordon heats up and Ryan Anderson and Luc Mbah a Moute return.
The Timberwolves proved how perfect they need to play to win.
Minnesota showcased an aggressive penetrating offense in the first quarter, with driving layups and sharp shooting from mid range. They also succeeded in forcing Tucker into foul trouble, while holding the Rockets to 20% shooting from the field as a team. This was their opening haymaker, and it was a blow that still only secured a 5-point lead heading into the second quarter. If that was the best that Minnesota has to throw at Houston, the Rockets should wrap this series up on the road without issue.
Clint Capela has arrived
How do you follow up a 24 point, 12 rebound, 3 block performance against one of the elite big men in the game? Follow it up with an 8 point, 16 rebound game and force Towns to sit for all but 4 minutes in the second half due to his ineffectiveness. Capela has been a quiet force all season, overshadowed by a Hall of Fame point guard and a presumptive regular season MVP. The playoffs, however, are where basketball gets gritty and you need an inside presence to stay afloat. National broadcasters are going to talk about Capela like he’s just now performing at an All-Star level, but the truth is that he’s been doing it all season.
They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”