DEFENSE: The Achilles' Heel of the Houston Rockets

Apr 2, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale talks to his players during a timeout against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. The Raptors beat the Rockets 107-103. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

DEFENSE: The Achilles’ Heel of the Houston Rockets

Defense, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “the action of defending from or resisting attack.”

It’s a creed commonly coached and preached upon but there’s still just a chosen few in the NBA that know how do it effectively and efficiently.

It happens to be my biggest let-down of this past series. The Rockets highly-pronounced launch toward advancing to the 2nd Round for the first time in five years was abruptly aborted by Damian Lillard. He sank arguably one of the best playoff buzzer-beaters of all time.

May 2, 2014; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) makes a three pointer at the buzzer over Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons (25) to win the game during the fourth quarter in game six of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

Despite the two gritty wins they had this series, it was clearly evident that the Rockets never got it together on the defensive end of the court.

They learned just to do enough to stay in the game and let their offense take them the rest of the way.

The key is meshing those tangibles & intangibles to develop a game plan that is custom-fit for this team. No use of cookie-cutters, no one-size fits all.

That must include having a mindset to commit to playing defense for 48 minutes — it is paramount to eventual success.

However, I will not assess individual player blame for Rockets’ early exit because the team defense as a whole was torrid to say the least. We’ve seen this roster play for 88 games (season + playoffs) and we knew what to expect out of each individual.

Looking at the defensive playoff statistics that count, the Rockets gave up about 112 points a game, 1.27 points per shot, 29 free throw attempts per game and 40 field goals per game. With such bad numbers being put up, most of these categories ranked near the bottom of the barrel amongst the participating teams in the playoffs.

There was only ONE team that was just as bad as the Rockets were on defense in the playoffs, and that’s….wait for it…the Portland Trailblazers.

That’s why these teams match up so well.

What if the Rockets had a healthy Patrick Beverley? Beverley is one player that cannot do it all — I admire the heart and hustle that he displays any time that he’s on the court but one could tell that he was still suffering from the effects of a torn meniscus in his right knee, not to mention the fever he suffered from as well.

Apr 23, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) passes the ball during the first quarter as Houston Rockets guard Patrick Beverley (2) defends in game two during the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

He seemed to be a shell of himself and we didn’t see the intense defensive prowess that we as Rockets fans are accustomed to. It’s hard to use stats to display Beverley’s digression since his injury because most of what he does isn’t going to be on a stat sheet, but what I’ve seen with my own eyes as well as many other fans is real.

I suspect that he will eventually have the surgery to repair that meniscus because these types of injuries can have an adverse impact on the livelihood of a player’s career if not treated.

Furthermore, Kevin McHale does deserve some blame for this, but I didn’t think his job should’ve been in jeopardy as the whispers of rumors got louder right after the disheartening conclusion of Game 6. Luckily, they’ve been quelled with the recent news that his job is safe.

He is a good fit for the team and he seems to connect with the players well. After all, he was a player once upon a time so he can relate to what players go through during a grueling season/postseason.

He continues to coach the offense well, mixing in a few plays and letting the players create on their own. This strategy has the Rockets ranked in the top-five in the league in most categories.

They even improved upon their rebounding from 45 per game in the season to 49 boards a game in the postseason for the No. 1 ranking. This is obviously a result of inserting Omer Asik — the Turkish Hammer — into lineup. Asik is a rebounding machine!

McHale needs to look long and hard in the mirror and ask himself if he needs help coaching defense. He may be in some state of denial thinking that everything is fine and that he doesn’t need additional staff.