The Houston Rockets have a particular offensive style under head coach Mike D’Antoni that involves a ton of isolation ball with star James Harden leading the charge.
That approach backfired in a big way during the team’s first Western Conference Finals game against the Golden State Warriors Monday night, but D’Antoni doesn’t plan on making many changes.
Speaking with the media Tuesday morning, D’Antoni made it clear that the Rockets will be sticking with the same approach they utilized all season and throughout the playoffs thus far.
“We’ve been doing this for 82 games. We are who we are,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni about concerns about the isolation heavy offense.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) May 15, 2018
D’Antoni said stats back up Rockets’ season-long success in iso sets. Team will make adjustments but ultimately stick with it.
— Brian T. Smith (@BTSmithUK) May 15, 2018
D’Antoni said Rockets must stick to what they do. Can’t change now and must tune out noise after Game 1.
— Brian T. Smith (@BTSmithUK) May 15, 2018
D’Antoni has plenty of reasons to stick with what’s worked thus far. He’s been a huge reason why the NBA game has changed so much in the past couple of decades, and the Rockets certainly have the players to maximize the approach.
That said, he might be forced to change things up mid-stream if the Warriors jump out to an early lead in Game 2. Golden State capitalized on mistakes made as Houston ran its Iso attack Monday night, forcing 13 turnovers while nabbing nine steals and holding Houston’s offense to 45.9 percent shooting from the field.