Rockets' players not fans of intentional foul strategy against Pistons' Drummond
It may have been a decision that started with the front office of the Houston Rockets, but the team's players were not necessarily happy about Wednesday's strategy to send Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond to the foul line 36 times.
Drummond missed an NBA-record 23 free throws thanks to hack-a-Dre. Detroit, however, still won the game 123-114.
"It was draining," Rockets star James Harden said of the fouling strategy, according to ESPN's Calvin Watkins. "We couldn't get stops when we needed to. We didn't have a rhythm offensively."
Harden's first triple-double of the season, including 33 points on 22 shots, and a career-high 17 rebounds, went to waste in the loss.
Seldom-used Rockets forward K.J. McDaniels entered the game in the third quarter for the express purpose of fouling Drummond, a career 38.5 percent free-throw shooter. He fouled the big man five times in 10 seconds.
"Am I a fan of it? Do I like it? No. Not really," forward Trevor Ariza said. "But if that's what the game plan is, that's what you have to go out there and do."
Houston's game plan, night in and night out is something that is fluid, and apparently regularly discussed between general manager Daryl Morey and interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
"It's a constant dialogue about being more aggressive," Morey told Watkins, trying to be clear that the coach makes the final call. "It's something that's debated and discussed ... J.B. always makes the final decision."
Still, hacking poor free-throw shooters is nothing new for the Rockets, nor the rest of the NBA for that matter, dating back to the Shaquille O'Neal era. In last spring's playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, former Rockets coach Kevin McHale employed the tactic against DeAndre Jordan, sending him to the line 34 times in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Like Thursday, the Rockets lost that game too - much like most teams do that are forced into it, hacking from a deficit to get the ball back.
Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy was incredulous after the game Wednesday, blaming the league for consistently allowing it to happen - at their own risk.
"At some point the fans might get to the point and say, 'We're not going to pay to watch this. We're going to flip the channels,'" he said.