The Houston Rockets began this season as a trendy NBA Finals pick. However, after rough 4-7 start, the team fired Head Coach Kevin McHale and named 36-year-old assistant J.B. Bickerstaff as interim head coach.
In an effort to get the team back on track, Bickerstaff held a “mini training camp” between the Rockets loss to the Knicks on Sunday and tonight’s game against Memphis.
In addition to refocusing the team’s attitude towards a more disciplined, structured approach, Bickerstaff even brought in a Navy Seal to help motivate the team.
Houston guard Jason Terry told the Houston Chronicle these practices had a different feel than before.
“It was a hard practice,” Terry said. “It was attention to detail. There were consequences for not paying attention to detail. Just getting back to our roots, that’s defense first, executing on offense and making the extra pass. We got to put the work in if we want to get the results. Though we thought we were doing that before, we weren’t doing that enough, obviously. It was good to see. It felt great. Today was a day, mentally we got better.”
Bickerstaff has also put more of an onus on All-Star guard James Harden to step his play back up to last year’s near-MVP levels.
Bickerstaff said he saw a more intense, focused Harden on defense tonight. The two have discussed Harden needing to take game to next level.
— Brian T. Smith (@BTSmithUK) November 19, 2015
So far, the team is just 1-2 since firing McHale. Houston sits at 12th place in the Western Conference, and is already double-digit games behind the torrid pace set by Golden State. The West may not be quite the bloodbath it has been in years past, but the Rockets can ill afford to fall further behind if they want a shot at any home court advantage in the playoffs.
The Rockets host the Grizzlies tonight at 8 p.m. EST before the winless 76ers come to town on Friday.
