8:00 PM ET
Vs
PG- Jeremy Lin
SG- James Harden
SF- Chandler Parsons
PF- Patrick Patterson
C- Omer Asik
Bonus
When President Obama predicted a rout of Mitt Romney, the basketball lover in him went to an analogy he knew would reveal his confidence nine months before the election.
“We’re the Miami Heat, and he’s Jeremy Lin,” Obama was reported to have said last February, days after the eventual NBA champion Heat dominated Lin, forcing him into eight turnovers and a 1 of 11 shooting game in a 102-88 rout.
Months later, James Harden did better against the Heat, but never broke out as he had throughout the playoffs, making 37.5 percent of his shots and averaging 12.4 points per game in the Finals.
Tonight, both face the Heat again for the first time since last season’s struggles, hoping to take their success on Saturday against the team that could be the league’s worst to Monday’s test against the team still considered the NBA’s best.
The stakes won’t be nearly as great as when Harden last ventured into the teeth of Miami’s defensive traps, and it won’t generate the attention that came with Lin’s month in the national spotlight. It will, however, measure the Rockets’ progress in ways the woeful Pistons and even the Grizzlies on Friday could not.
“They’re aggressive,” Lin said. “They’re an attacking defense. Not just us, but they do that to everybody. That’s their style. That’s what we have to be prepared for. The best way to handle an attacking defense is to attack on offense. That’s what we want to try to do.”
Harden would not discuss tonight’s reunion with the champions.
“It’s my day off,” he said. “I’m not talking.”
The Rockets did, however, spend at least a portion of the day preparing, taking the unusual step of practicing the day after playing two games in as many nights. After two weeks of trying to meld the shift to Harden as the focal point of the offense with the determination to maintain the motion-offense style they needed before they had him, the Rockets will go against a defense that will require that kind of movement.
The fast start of the Miami offense has been most conspicuous, with the Heat going into Sunday’s game in Memphis as the league’s top-scoring, best shooting team. For the Rockets, however, attention quickly went to a defensive style that forces teams to do exactly what the Rockets have had most trouble doing.
“For us, it’s not necessarily an adjustment as much as a commitment to how we want to play,” Rockets acting head coach Kelvin Sampson said. “When they miss, we have to get it and go. We don’t want this to be a slow-down, halfcourt game. We want to push it in transition.
“LeBron (James) and (Mario) Chalmers – people don’t realize what a good defender Chalmers is – can almost bring you to a standstill on one side of the floor. There’s a huge emphasis against Miami on not playing on the strong side. As long as the ball is on one side, they do such a great job loading to one side of the floor there is no room. Ball movement will be at a premium.”
The Rockets have struggled to have the ball movement they need while still giving Harden the freedom to create. That was much better against the Pistons, even when the Rockets opened the game making just 3 of 15 shots. But the Pistons posed little threat and the Rockets felt no pressure. The Heat will not be as forgiving of a 3 of 15 stretch of misfiring.
“(Miami) did the same thing as … those middle two teams. Portland and Denver blitzed him,” Sampson said. “What we’ve done is bring the next pass in. James, when he gets blitzed, can’t try to beat the double team. The most important pass in pick-and-roll or double team is to pass out of it. That pass leads to the next pass. Detroit tried to do a little bit of that in the first quarter, but James did a great job of not trying to beat the double team, or passing it real quick.”
Harden has had some success splitting the double teams, usually by weaving his way into the lane and drawing fouls. But he has also been turnover prone when trying that high-risk move. The Rockets have led the league in turnovers, averaging 19 per game and cannot get away with giving the Heat extra possessions.
Though Harden had just two assists on Saturday, he had many more passes that led to the next pass and the open shot. That will be much more difficult against the Heat, as Lin and Harden have seen firsthand. The key this time, Lin said, could be to lean on each other.
“It’s split responsibility,” Lin said. “When you play a team like Miami, they don’t let one person beat them so it’s going to have to be all of us.
“They’re really fast. They have that experience together. They have incredible athletes.”
He should know – even without a presidential reminder.
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