Skip to content

Rockets hold 'mini training camp,' say they're back on track

Thomas B. Shea / USA TODAY Sports

Their first crack at training camp apparently didn't take, so the Houston Rockets decided to give it another go.

After stumbling to a 5-9 start and helping to usher head coach Kevin McHale out the door just 11 games into his three-year extension, the Rockets - now led on an interim basis by J.B. Bickerstaff - held a series of intense practices that point guard Jason Terry described as "a mini training camp," according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.

Houston has had three days off since losing to the New York Knicks on Saturday night, and Bickerstaff believes the payoff from those practice days will be evident when they return to game action Wednesday.

"Our attitude has changed over the past week and a half," he said. "We've taken a more serious approach in what we're doing. Guys are more disciplined in what we're doing and they were hungry for that. As a group, we brought them together. That was the first thing they were calling for, some more discipline, more structure and more rules."

The Rockets came into this season with championship aspirations, riding the wave of a 56-win campaign in which they'd come up just three wins short of the NBA Finals. For various reasons - some tangible, most not - they currently rank 27th in the league in offensive efficiency and 25th in defense (they were 12th and sixth in those categories last season). They're tied for the second-worst point differential in the Western Conference.

The season is still just a month old and the Rockets have plenty of time to turn things around, especially given the seemingly weakened state of the West. Terry, the team's elder statesman at 38 years old, feels like they've nipped the general malaise that's been plaguing them in the bud.

"It was a hard practice," he 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."

That's all well and good, but Terry knows the Rockets still need to put their money where their mouths are.

"The next step," he said, "is winning basketball games."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox