Written by Alex Schubauer at No Coast Bias
A short six months ago, the Houston Rockets playing the Los Angeles Clippers was must-see TV. They were two elite Western Conference teams vying for a spot in the conference finals. The Clippers collapsed and the Rockets moved on, but similar successes were expected for both again this season. You wouldn’t know that by watching their matchup Saturday night.
I wanted to watch the game because they’re two of the most fascinating teams in the league, just for the reasons they’d like. But after only one quarter, I’d seen all I needed (or wanted) to see.
I’ll start with a short prelude. Houston started so badly at 4-7 they fired Kevin McHale, the guy who coached the team to the conference finals half a year earlier. They’ve since worked their way back to mediocrity at 13-14. The Clippers, on the other hand, have a merely good record of 16-11, but are playing more like a league average team. It was a battle of two teams who aren’t what they once were, and desperately wanted to be.
I’m now going to list some things I saw in just the first twelve minutes of this game, prepare yourselves:
- Trevor Ariza scoring off the opening tip before the Clippers could get in a defensive stance
- Dwight Howard throwing a pass off Patrick Beverly’s face
- both teams giving up wide open looks on defense
- both teams failing to convert those wide open looks
- Clint Capela losing the ball on his way up for an easy dunk
- James Harden missing two wide open threes within five seconds
- Luc Mbah a Moute clanking a corner three off the side of the backboard
- Wesley Johnson airballing a corner three far over the rim
- Blake Griffin putting a sick crossover on Donatas Montiejunas then dribbling off his knee
- probably more, it was tough to watch for long stretches at a time
Around that point, the benches came in. I barely even noticed at that point that the Rockets were running away with the game handily. Because you saw just a few glimpses from each team of what they could be; the rest was just a blur of blah. Remember, these are supposed to be championship contenders.
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