Houston Rockets: James Harden and the historic collapse?

The Houston Rockets season as we know it is over and we’ll all be wondering what the hell happened in Game 6.

Usually when us fans refer to a Game 6, we think about back in 2015 when the Houston Rockets came back from a near-insurmountable deficit on the Los Angeles Clippers to take Game 6 to eventually win the series.

Their backs were up against the wall and they responded when the pressure was on.

But let’s fast-forward to this season.

After an admirable run of winning 55 games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, the Rockets seemed primed to start their postseason on the right foot.

And it looked like that they were.

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They were able to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games without barely breaking a sweat and they primed to face the San Antonio Spurs, a perennially formidable opponent, in the 2nd round.

As you remember, the Rockets came out firing in Game 1, shooting three after three and it became difficult for the Spurs to keep up.

A lot of us were thinking that we may have this series wrapped up quickly but I knew that wasn’t so because of the resilience of the Spurs.

Our opponent made adjustments and effectively took the three-pointer away — I honestly don’t think we were the same after that, even after the admirable performance in Game 4.

We were also challenged with the loss of Nene for the season, with an injury to his left thigh.

His inside presence and his leadership in the locker room was sorely missed and could be a reason for the collapse we had in Game 6.

The table was set — the Spurs were without their key stars in Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard and it seemed the Rockets were primed to take over and head to the WCFs.

Not so — I’ve doubted the willpower of the Spurs before and I’ve been wrong every time I’ve done so.

Gregg Popovich always knows how to make adjustments and he always has enough depth to get the job done no matter what name is on the back of the jersey.

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In fact, he helps make the names on the back of those jerseys!

The Spurs inserted Dejounte Murray and Jonathon Simmons into the lineup and the well-oiled machine continued to run without a hitch while ours was falling apart like an old jalopy.

I expected more out of the Rockets in Game 6 — as all of you did — and this colossal of a failure will go down in NBA history as one of the worst.

They had no energy, a lack of urgency and simply did not have the will to win in Game 6.

It all starts with James Harden who didn’t seem to have any of the fire that’s needed to will his team to win.

He needs another superstar to couple with so that he can shoulder the leadership responsibilities because it’s clearly obvious he can’t on his own.

As with most in pro sports, this is something one is not supposed to see considering how competitive they have to be to get to the next level.

But in defense of the Rockets, it’s extremely possible that they were emotionally and physically drained from a hard season with the bumps in the road along the way.

Mike D’Antoni had gone to a seven-man rotation for the playoffs and I could understand those guys were tired from all of the grinding.

But still, you want to see fierceness out of your team when they go the floor to compete.

I’m sure D’Antoni would take that back if he were to do that over again but this was situation that they were in.

The Spurs got nasty, defended us well and made their shots.

On many occasions, they converted our turnovers to points on their end.

That hurt the most because the Rockets never responded to match their intensity.

So here’s what needs to be done for next season — the Rockets need to make defense a priority because we’re not going to get far without it.

Keep the offensive system — it works the majority of the time but I feel it needs to be tweaked to incorporate mid-range jumpers.

But I doubt we’ll see that it’s something to consider.

Next: James Harden To Sign A Super-Max Deal?

We also needed to be active players on the off season market shopping for a big because we won’t be able to compete with talented rebounding teams like the Spurs.

That’s a must and I know that we can do it.

I also expect to have most of this team back because for all intents and purposes, the chemistry was there and things worked around here.

But keep an eye out throughout the off season as we’re going to see developments in regard to the latest tinkering that Daryl Morey will do with our beloved team.

Until then — go Rockets!

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