In many ways, the gathering of the Houston Rockets team in the tense Toyota Center locker room following a second consecutive outburst from the Lakers last Tuesday was the perfect encapsulation of the emotional rollercoaster that kicked off their 2020-21 season.
Failure. Frustration. Friction. It was all out in the open – at last.
From a purely basketball-related standpoint, the meeting was inevitable given their 3-6 start. The team played with a lack of energy and intensity at both ends of the floor, the early growing pains of a new system under freshman coach Stephen Silas were obvious, and a roster that now included John Wall in Russell Westbrook’s old spot and seven others. new players were decimated by a combination of minor injuries and COVID-19-related protocol violations.
But out of court, where James Harden’s trade question had made their job so miserable for the past 10 weeks in late October, the meeting was …