Houston • The Rockets’ defensive effort against the Jazz in Game 1 on Sunday night shocked and amazed plenty of people. Just don’t count the Rockets among them.
“It doesn’t surprise me that we can defend, at all,” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said afterward.
And deservedly so. The Rockets, after all, have long been regarded as an offensively-oriented team — that’ll happen with D’Antoni (of “Seven Seconds or Less” fame with the Phoenix Suns) as the coach, and when James Harden averages 36 points per game, which is the seventh-best scoring average in NBA history.