Back in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, the Houston Rockets became the laughing stock of the NBA world. Maybe even the whole basketball world, or the world of sports in general. This, of course, is when they blew their chance at an NBA Finals appearance by missing 27 consecutive threes in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
The crazy thing is that it was still a single digit loss with the scoreboard reading 101-92 at the end, per the ESPN Box Score. That means the Rockets could’ve forced overtime if they made three more shots from distance. Instead, they shot 10/44 overall, only making one of their last thirty attempts. It was just the ultimate cold streak at the worst possible time.
I often see fans, media members, and even former players blaming James Harden, which I’ll never fully understand. They act as if he missed all 27 of those three pointers by himself. He did miss 10 straight, which is more than a third of that infamous slump, but that leaves 17 more attempts without a make.
Harden shot 2/13 from deep, but Eric Gordon wasn’t much better. He finished shooting only 2/12, missing seven consecutive threes to add to The Beard’s 10 straight. Trevor Ariza went 0/9 on the night, with six of those coming in the team’s cold spell.
So just three guys were responsible for 23 straight misses, and combined to shoot 4/34 overall. It was a team-wide meltdown, not just Harden. That’s because launching threes was a team-wide mandate for everyone, not just Harden. Clint Capela was the only guy prohibited from taking any.
PJ Tucker was the best shooter in black and red that night, though, making two out of his five attempts. Gerald Green only shot one for four. Ryan Anderson didn’t miss, but that’s only because he didn’t take any shots in his eight minutes of play. Even Joe Johnson missed his only attempt in his five minutes on the court. It was the whole team.
Since 2012-2013, the Rockets were at the top of the league for three pointers attempted per game in every season besides 2015-2016, per Team-Rankings. They still only attempted 1.1 less than the Warriors in their 73-9 season, where Stephen Curry made an NBA record 402 threes by himself.
Point being, this is what the Rockets did and they found great success with it. 2018 was no different, as James Harden was finally awarded MVP in that season. In the previous year, Mike D’Antoni won Coach of the year and Eric Gordon won Sixth Man of the Year. They were at the peak of their powers.
It’s hard to expect any player, let alone a whole team, to completely switch their successful style of play after missing some shots. They played their game and they lost, so who’s to blame?
Coaching, for not switching up the strategy and still relying on the law of averages in the biggest game of the season? All of the players, for following that game plan?
Or just specifically James Harden? Blame him for continuing to play the team’s style of ball, rather than going rogue and doing his own thing? Going against his teammates and coaches by randomly taking some mid range jumpers?
I just can’t personally get with that idea. They took a page out of the Philadelphia 76ers book and trusted the process. The playstyle was always going to be limiting, but they trusted the mathematics behind it. Three is greater than two. They just didn’t make enough threes.
If they don’t live by the three for the greater part of the 2010’s, then sure, they don’t die by the three in the 2018 WCF either —— but that also means you don’t get any of the 50 win seasons with multiple All-Stars, or the franchise record 65 win season in 2018.
It was a bitter ending, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. No need to place blame on anyone for the shortcomings, in my opinion. All that does is take away from the greatness that we saw in that Harden era of Houston Rockets basketball.