Failure to Liftoff: Inside the Rockets’ Desperate Championship Pursuit
By: Spencer Young
Tags: Sports, NBA, James Harden, Houston Rockets, Chris Paul

THE ROCKETS WERE three games into their second-round series against the Jazz. They were dominating the Jazz at home, making up for their disappointing performance in Game 2, which saw Utah even up the series at 1 apiece.

During the game, a timeout was called, and in the ensuing huddle, a dispute between Harden and Paul ensued. After being commanded by Paul, Harden was visibly upset. Paul, much to the delight of social media after the game, attempted to calm down Harden while audibly saying, “you played O.K.” Instead, Harden slapped away Paul’s arm, going on an incredibly heated rebuttal and looking more impassioned than normal.

Meanwhile, D’Antoni kept the huddle, with other players listening to what he was saying. Harden and Paul were on their own, as if they were playing for a different team, while the rest of the team acted as if the argument wasn’t happening.

This argument wasn’t an isolated incident, nor was it an anomaly. Rather, this was a microcosm of the Harden-Paul relationship for months, which was kept behind closed doors.

And when Daryl Morey believed he was making a contender by putting two players with incredibly high basketball I.Q.’s in the same backcourt, what he didn’t account for was the difference in ideologies between Harden and Paul.

On the one hand, there was Harden, an MVP-caliber player who preferred to repeatedly run simple isolations and pick and rolls until the opposing defense wore down. It was this style of offense that made Harden and the Rockets so lethal in the 2018 season, yet as the playoffs showed, it was flawed.

Ever so slightly, Paul’s performance declined in 2018, and Harden’s workload kept rising, a trend which would foreshadow future events in the Harden-Paul duo.

Paul’s play-style from his days on the Clippers ran contrary to D’Antoni’s system. To Paul’s credit, he changed his game to fit into the offensive system, isolating more than ever and getting more spot-up three-pointers.

Harden and Paul were, to put it simply, incredible during 2018, and they were the two best isolation players in the entire league. But in the following season, with Paul suddenly struggling mightily in the same isolation plays from the previous season, the Rockets had a problem on their hands.

Paul and Harden’s relationship was already tenuous in 2018, and 2019 was a colossal power struggle between the two. Harden’s workload increased more than ever, and he bristled at the lack of scoring help he was receiving from his co-star, Paul. Paul, for his part, believed D’Antoni wasn’t helping him thrive because of insistence on running isolations, rather than set plays.

Reportedly, Paul and Harden went months without speaking during the season, and their fighting became petty, with the turmoil of their fractious bond spilling over into the locker room. Also, Paul would supposedly relish every opportunity to shine with Harden on the bench, both sending a message to Harden and D’Antoni.

Neither side was winning the battle, with Harden playing like an MVP, but Paul playing at an All-NBA level when Harden was on the bench. So the Rockets entered the playoffs as talented as ever, but as chaotic as ever, as well.

In the end, the Rockets’ playoff hopes were once again ended by Golden State, with Harden carrying most of the offensive load and Paul struggling against the stout defense of Klay Thompson.

Paul and Harden’s partnership reportedly became “unsalvageable,” and with an offseason of questions ahead, after the fateful Game 6, Harden, speaking in front of masses of reporters, claimed, “I know what we need to do. I know exactly what we need to do. We’ll figure it out this summer.”