The Houston Rockets are “playing like crap,” according to head coach Mike D’Antoni.
D’Antoni says the team, currently 1-5 following a 104-85 home loss Tuesday night to the Portland Trail Blazers, needs to regain its swagger.
Blazers drop Rockets to 1-5 by inflicting another home blowout https://t.co/vCJ2QInmvZ
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) October 31, 2018
James Harden remains sidelined by a left hamstring strain.
Per the Houston Chronicle:
“Last year, we played well. Right now, we’re playing like crap,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said of following a 5-1 start one season to a 1-5 start the next. “We’ll look. We’ll fight it. Not making shots, not making foul shots, not making layups.”
The Rockets had their fewest points at home in D’Antoni’s three seasons driving what had been among the league’s top offenses. But with the now familiar collection of missed layups, missed wide-open 3-pointers and missed free throws, there was little surprising about another collapse.
“It’s hard to explain,” D’Antoni said. “We lost our swagger. We’re on our heels. When you’re desperate, it’s good on defense because your hair should be on fire, but it’s bad on offense. Tonight, it was like we were pretty good defensively for most of the game, but offensively, we weren’t calm and didn’t have that poise and didn’t hit anything for a long time.”
