NBA scores 2016: The Rockets’ brilliant offense still needs some defense

Houston beat up on Portland on Sunday. Its offense has proven itself, but the defensive lapses are concerning.

Nov 28, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

NBA: Houston Rockets at Portland Trail Blazers

Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Rockets have an offense that would make the ‘7 Seconds or Less’ Suns blush. You can see the next evolution of the Mike D’Antoni offense as he orchestrates their scoring binges from the sidelines, even if that trademarked mustache is sadly missing.

You can see it when the Rockets set an NBA record with 50 three-point attempts on Friday, something those Suns didn’t do. You can see it when they shoot 36 more threes while racking up 130 points against the Trail Blazers on Sunday, a masterful performance led by James Harden’s 38 points and 10 assists. You can see it when Portland tried every defense in the book and still couldn’t slow them down.

The Rockets scored at least 30 points in all four quarters on Sunday, with 34 in the fourth as they pulled away from Portland. The Blazers tried trapping Harden on his trademarked high pick-and-roll. They tried laying off. They switched a few times. None of it worked. This is about how easy it looked every time for Harden, this time finishing the play with an all too easy lob dunk to Clint Capela.

Houston’s offense sits No. 4 in the league right now with a 110.1 offensive rating. There’s a good chance they push for No. 2 or 3 by the season’s end, and since Patrick Beverley returned five games ago, they’ve raised that rating to 113.1 — a sure sign that they can be even better as the season goes along.

D’Antoni has engineered a simple formula with devastating results. Harden is impossible to guard and a genius passer. Capela is one of the league’s best finishers when he gets the ball in the paint, which is good — his 6.6 touches in the paint is fourth best in the league, per NBA.com. (He averages 1.2 points per paint touch.) It’s no wonder Capela gets there so often, because no one wants to leave Ryan Anderson or Eric Gordon alone on the perimeter. What are defenses really supposed to do? You can choose death in the paint or death from outside shooting, but you’re dying all the same.

Houston is sitting at 11-6 this season, a respectable record with pretty much all those losses coming against quality team. They’re clearly a Western Conference playoff team, and perhaps one that can snag home court advantage.

It’s the Rockets’ defense that will determine how well they fare once there, though. This isn’t some state-kept secret. A fantastic offense can carry you through the doldrums of the season, but it won’t help in the postseason when the league’s best teams are exposing a below-average defense.

You can see the flaws in Sunday’s win, even beyond the 114 points allowed. In the final few minutes of the game, the Rockets made mistake after mistake defensively. Capela fell asleep guarding Mason Plumlee 20 feet from the basket, and Plumlee took him off the dribble. Capela tried to save the layup and ended up committing a flagrant-one.

With 3:14 left in the game, Lillard nailed a wide-open jumper because the Rockets were confused by a simple flare screen to the corner. On the next play, Anderson sheepishly ran at CJ McCollum after forgetting him in that same corner. Two possessions after that, Ariza fouled Lillard shooting a three.

It doesn’t help that Harden’s turnover-prone style of play often coughs the ball up at the top of the key, giving opponents quick runouts the other way. But nobody’s asking the Rockets to be anything more than average on that end. They have good defenders in their starting five, and all Houston should be hoping for is that they can sneak out of the bottom-10. With this offense, that’s enough to make the Rockets a real force. It’s just not happening yet.

It’s still Anthony Davis all by himself in New Orleans.

In the first quarter, the Pelicans went to Anthony Davis four straight possessions posting up on the right side. On the fifth, they changed it up — Davis posted up from the left side instead.

Davis finished with 36 points and 13 rebounds, providing 44 percent of New Orlean’s scoring output in a 91-81 loss to the Mavericks on Sunday. It was a terrible offensive effort against the team with the worst record in the league, with only Jrue Holiday scoring in double figures besides Davis.

Holiday’s return six games ago seemed to turn things around for New Orleans. They won four straight, three of them against playoff teams from last year, but the Pelicans have now followed that up with back-to-back losses. Dropping a game to Dallas is inexcusable for the Pelicans’ playoff aspirations.

New Orleans sits at 6-12 now, and they’re inspiring the same bland feelings these past two years. Davis is godly, scoring in the paint better than anyone in the league. But his teammates are constantly injured — still are — and the team’s end result is mediocrity. Another year has started, and right now it looks like it’ll end with the Pelicans out of the playoffs again.

Clippers, wyd?

We’ll let our Clippers blog break down Los Angeles’ performance against the Pacers on Sunday.

Clearly, Sunday was an awful outing following a bad Friday loss to Detroit. Los Angeles could barely score against an Indiana team still missing Paul George, falling 91-70. But in the broad picture, you have to think that the Clippers will be fine. Concerns about whether they’ve peaked too soon just seem unfounded, especially given the team’s road-heavy schedule.

Sunday’s best performances

LeBron James (26 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists)

James has recorded a lot fewer triple-doubles than you might think. As he settles into his role as Cleveland’s team dad this season — just setting up the young’uns and doing the messy rebounding chores while letting the scoring come naturally — he’s going to be recording a lot more of those. He already has three this season, and was a rebound away from a fourth.

The triple-double on Sunday also moves him out of a tie with Russell Westbrook for regular season career triple-doubles. Westbrook had tied him on Saturday, but James already took back his spot.

Anthony Davis (36 points, 13 rebounds)

Brow might have the best mid-paint floater in the game, and he’s 6’11.

Joel Embiid (22 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks)

Embiid shot 8-of-18 with only three turnovers. That’s good enough efficiency for a player who sometimes gets a little wild.

James Harden (38 points, 10 assists)

Harden barely topped double-digit assists for this one, but he did. That gives him seven straight double-doubles, all of the points-assists variety.

DeMarcus Cousins (37 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 threes)

Boogie’s last four games behind the three-point line: 4-of-5, 5-of-9, 3-of-5, 3-of-6. He’s averaging 4.1 attempts per game on 38-percent shooting on the year now.