It’s been a rough season for the Rockets, one in which they were expected to be one of the Western Conference’s better teams but instead slipped all the way down to .500 and came within a game of missing the playoffs.
Along the way, this Houston team hasn’t exactly gotten a reputation for loving each other.
Well Thursday night, with Steph Curry out for the Warriors, James Harden put the Rockets on his back, hitting a go-ahead jumper with 2.7 seconds left to give his team a 97-96 victory over Golden State. Harden was pumped, the fans at the arena were pumped, people on Twitter were pumped, the Rockets’ bench… decidedly unpumped.
https://twitter.com/CharlesRobinson/status/723518259056775168
So Clint Capela had the right idea, but Dwight Howard, Corey Brewer, Terrance Jones and (in a suit) Sam Dekker look like their team is down by 25. At least Brewer offers a polite golf clap.
Now, the obvious conclusion to draw here is that the Rockets all hate each other and are so dispassionate about this season that they can’t even smile when their team hits a dramatic shot to beat the heavily favored defending champs, but Houston GM Daryl Morey has an alternate explanation.
Big win to keep series on serve&folks are worried about grading cheer technique&execution when there is still time left on the clock? OK
— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) April 22, 2016
This is a valiant effort in rationalizing, but teams celebrate go-ahead buckets all the time. It would have been perfectly acceptable for these guys to at least, you know, smile.
Maybe they just know they’re going to lose this series anyway and are bummed that Harden had to go delay the inevitable.
Coach Bernie Bickerstaff, any explanation?
https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/723514175880876032
Didn’t think so.
