With his team’s season on the line, James Harden showed up for the Houston Rockets in Game 5, scoring 30 points on 60% shooting in Game 5 of the second-round playoff series versus the Los Angeles Lakers.
Unfortunately for Harden, who also led the undersized Rockets with six rebounds, his teammates didn’t show nearly the same ability.
“It’s very, very frustrating,” Harden said postgame of his season coming to an end. “Especially the amount of work that individually I put in. I’m just gonna keep chipping away. … I feel like we’re a piece away.”
Among Houston’s other seven rotation players, all seven shot below 40% from the field and only two scored in double-figures as the Lakers cruised to a 119-96 victory (box score). Led by 29 points from LeBron James, Los Angeles had six total players in double figures, and they connected on a stunning 19-of-37 shots (51.4%) from 3-point range.
James Harden: "It's very, very frustrating. Especially the amount of work that individually I put in. I'm just gonna keep chipping away…I feel like we're a piece away."
Says they have to put the right pieces around he and Russell Westbrook. #Rockets
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) September 13, 2020
With the loss, Houston’s season ended in the second round of the playoffs, with the Lakers advancing to the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers (52-19) were nearly 10 games better than the Rockets (44-28) in the 2019-20 playoffs, and they showed why with four straight convincing victories to close out the best-of-seven series. After losing Game 1, the Lakers won the next four by an average of nearly 13 points per game.
“They hit some timely shots and played great,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said of the Lakers, who rushed out to a 33-11 lead in the first quarter and held off a series of Houston runs throughout the game. “We gave it everything we had. We just didn’t have enough for them.”
It remains to be seen if D’Antoni will return to the team next season. While he has the best winning percentage in franchise history in both the regular season and playoffs (among head coaches), the 4-1 series loss to the Lakers — including four straight to lose the series — showed how far as Rockets still have to go to reach the NBA’s top tier.
With no salary cap room for the foreseeable future and most of the key rotation players under contract for multiple seasons, it’s hard to envision a major change to the roster. On the other hand, D’Antoni’s contract is up, which makes a coaching change easier to pull off since there are no future financial obligations owed to him. With Harden and Westbrook both 31 years old, their prime years are running short, and there’s a clear sense of urgency for the franchise. If the roster can’t be significantly changed, they might need to gamble on a coaching move.
Mike D'Antoni on whether his run with the Rockets is over: "We’ll see what happens. I had four years. Hopefully it keeps going, but you just never know." He definitely wants to continue coaching, whether it's in Houston or elsewhere.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) September 13, 2020
The Rockets will depart Sunday from the NBA’s Disney World “bubble” in Florida, with a charter flight back to Houston. Next up are offseason decisions to be made by owner Tilman Fertitta and GM Daryl Morey, with the coaching situation likely first on the agenda.
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