HOUSTON – It’s no secret by now the current Houston Rockets were built to take down the Golden State Warriors.
The teams are similar, with two of the five most efficient offenses in NBA history. They shoot 3s at a clip even the most prophetic of visionaries could not have imagined when the 3-point line debuted in the ABA in 1967 and the NBA in 1979.
In today’s professional basketball world, it’s the shot that makes most sense if a player is outside of the paint.
No team has done it better than the Warriors of the last four years and the Rockets of this season.
At practice Saturday, PJ Tucker simplified what the Rockets are all about, despite all the analytics that go into the team’s approach.
“Essentially, it’s just hooping man and that’s how it is,” Tucker told media. “If we start playing right now, it’s just us playing. We figure it out. … We’re just playing. We don’t have a lot of sets, where it’s the progression of a set. We just read how the defense plays it and take advantage of mismatches and move the ball.”
Chris Paul looks at it the same way. He’s played on teams with more traditional basketball sets – sometimes running the acclaimed triangle offense with the New Orleans Hornets in his earliest professional days, and the pick-and-roll with post-up play with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Here in Houston?
“We just hoop. Some systems you play in, they require this, they require that. So here, we just hoop. We don’t overthink it. If we get a mismatch, we just go at it.”
So this begs the question: What are the mismatches in this series?
SB Nation’s Rockets fan blog, named after perhaps the coldest move in basketball history, notes Paul’s critical defensive responsibility on two-time MVP Stephen Curry.
In online forums, Rockets fans are concerned about pace. The Dream Shake mentions how much faster Curry is moving on offense than Paul is moving on defense.
How well the Rockets rotate and switch will be critical in containing what the Warriors like to do most – run around and move the ball until they find a wide open shot.
And the Warriors are going to make shots, make no mistake about it. As critical as the Rockets’ defense will be, it’s how they hold up in the shootout that determines how competitive the series is.
“We have a lot of similarities,” Tucker said. “We’re the same way. Even when you score, we’re not going to sit there and just watch and kind of just sulk in the moment, whether it’s Steph or Kevin (Durant) hitting a crazy 3.
“We’re going to get the ball out, put it right back and take the same shot that you just took on the other end. For us, it’s fighting fire with fire. It’s going to be fun, man. It’s going to be a fun series.”
Curry said the Warriors know what to expect from the Rockets. It's just a matter of readiness.
"It's a game plan that's been very consistent with James (Harden), same with CP (Paul), no matter where they've been over their careers," Curry said. "Whether it's a regular season game, playoff game, conference finals game, it's all the same type of mentality against them. Try to make it as tough as possible.
"They're obviously great scorers. We've seen a lot of film. We've experienced it throughout the season in the three games we've played them. We've got to be ready."
Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni said Saturday he's pleased with how the Rockets increased their defensive intensity in the first two rounds of the playoffs, noting the team's gone from "good" to "real good."
Of course, Houston was "real good" all year long, or at least good enough to post a franchise record and league-high 65 wins in the regular season. No other team won 60 or more.
But for the Rockets, regular season success is hollow. Even the relative success so far this postseason falls short of the target goal: beating the Warriors, a concept synonymous with winning a title in this league.
Just ask the Toronto Raptors what a top seed means if you don't finish.
Trevor Ariza says the Rockets have done well moving on to the next play, keeping their heads in the game even when it's not going their way.
"It’s hard to stay extremely focused for 48 minutes in a basketball game. Something’s going to happen to stop play.
"Against a team like the Warriors, you can’t afford to have mental lapses back to back. You’ve always got to stay ready."
And hoop.