Unsere Gaeste - Ecke » the connection to the organization

The Houston Rockets have plenty of things to fix after squandering their coveted home-court advantage in the Western Conference finals.

Tops on their list: limiting turnovers Jake Rudock Jersey , eliminating open 3s and making things tougher on the Golden State Warriors – particularly Kevin Durant.

”Kevin Durant and (Stephen) Curry, they’re good. So they’re going to make” shots, Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said. ”Our head can’t explode that they go one-on-one and make shots … you have to be able to absorb some of their greatness; at the same time, don’t make the mental errors that we did. That would accumulate for 15, 20 points, and that’s the difference in the game.”

Some almost sounds like the Rockets will have to play almost perfect beat the Warriors. They wouldn’t go as far as to say that, but James Harden, who scored 41 in Game 1, did say that at this level the margin for error gets razor thin.

”It’s the (conference) finals,” he said. ”There’s four teams here for a reason. Obviously these four teams have done great things all year. You can’t make the same mental mistakes like you’re in a regular season.”

There were plenty of Rockets miscues in Game 1.

They coughed up the ball 13 times on Monday and the Warriors outscored the Rockets 18-3 on fast break points en route to a 119-106 victory. Klay Thompson scored 28 points and made 6 of 15 3-point attempts on a night Harden lamented that about 10 of those looks were wide-open. Thompson’s performance came on top of Durant scoring 37 points, mostly by knocking down long 2’s when he was matched up against smaller defenders.

That said, what the Rockets won’t do in Game 2 on Wednesday night is change what they’ve done all year and what led to them winning a franchise-record 65 games in the regular season to earn the top-seed.

”We are who we are, and we’re pretty good at it,” D’Antoni said. ”We can’t get off who we are. Embrace it. Just be a better (version) of who we are and don’t worry if somebody else solves the puzzle a different way … we’ve got to play at our strengths.”

For the defending champion Warriors, they masterfully answered the challenge of opening a playoff series on the road for the first time since 2014. After falling behind by nine points early in front of a raucous Houston crowd, they settled down and led for most of the second half en route to the victory.

But playing in a franchise-record fourth straight conference finals, the Warriors know that they can’t let up after wrestling homecourt advantage away from the Rockets.

”That was a big win. We’re not going to downplay it,” Thompson said. ”But we’re not satisfied. We have a golden opportunity tomorrow to take a good lead. You have to have a short memory in the playoffs George Iloka Jersey , because the next game will come at you fast, and it might feel good to win, but it’s a seven-game series for a reason.”

Now they believe they’re up for an even bigger test in Game 2, with the Rockets desperate not to head to Oakland in a 0-2 hole. But they insist they won’t approach this game any differently than they did the opener.

”I think the game really came down to staying solid and allowing our talent to shine through,” coach Steve Kerr said. ”We have so many gifted players, that as long as we’re solid with the ball, we don’t make mistakes, defend with intensity, then our talent’s going to take over.”

To counteract all of that talent, the Rockets must find a way to get more players involved offensively to provide support for Harden. Chris Paul scored 23 points on Monday, but P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza, who combined to average almost 18 points in Houston’s first 10 postseason games, managed just nine points combined in Game 1.

Part of the struggles came from Ariza getting into foul trouble early, picking up his fifth foul with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter. While the Rockets still expect Durant to get his points, they hope Ariza will be able to stay on the floor more on Wednesday to try and make him work harder for them.

The Rockets insist that they aren’t going to let the disappointment of their loss in the opener bleed into Game 2. Harden took it upon himself to check in with his teammates after Game 1, calling them up to see if they had their heads in the right place and remind them that there’s a lot more to play for.

”I wanted to make sure that they’re good and they’re in a good place,” he said. ”All the guys seem happy and motivated. So we watch film, we can correct some things Jamie Collins Jersey , and (Wednesday) we should be better.”

—

Rod Brind’Amour came to Carolina in 2000 and never left.

He worked his way up the Carolina Hurricanes‘ organizational ladder from key trade acquisition to captain of a Stanley Cup-winning team to the front office to assistant coach and, now, head coach. Along the way, he’s become so blended into the fabric of the community that he coached his son’s T-ball team in his spare time without drawing much attention.

When he was introduced last month as Bill Peters’ successor, the Ottawa native referred to Raleigh as ”my town.”

”Obviously, I’ve been here a long time. My wife’s from here, we’ve got our families here,” Brind’Amour said. ”The organization means something to me, and wearing the crest, it’s special, and so I don’t envision myself being in the hockey world with anyone else. That’s kind of what I meant by it.

”I bleed Hurricane red,” he added.

With the NHL’s free agency period starting Sunday, Brind’Amour and the Hurricanes have something unique to sell – their new coach’s loyalty to the club and the city, and the intimate connection between the team and one of the league’s smallest markets – one that is starving for a winner. Carolina has the NHL’s longest active playoff drought, missing the postseason for nine consecutive years, and has made it only once since Brind’Amour hoisted the Cup in 2006.

Brind’Amour, who was traded here 18 years ago by the Philadelphia Flyers in the Keith Primeau deal, holds a rare position among his peers in the coaching fraternity as one of only 20 active coaches in North America’s four major professional sports who played for the team he now coaches.

”It’s special Jaylon Smith Jersey , and I think the attraction for me is that I believe in this group. … If we can just add the right pieces, I think we can be competitive,” Brind’Amour said. ”And I’ve been here when it was a great market, and we were good and had the support, so I know we can regain that.”

None of those 20 coaches have continuously been with their franchise as long as Brind’Amour. The closest comparison might be Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who spent his childhood in that city while his father worked in the team’s front office and has been with the club since 2007. After finishing his playing career in 2011, he moved into the front office and took over as manager in 2015 following Ron Roenicke’s midseason firing.

”Growing up here and being a fan of the Brewers, and just living here my whole life, the connection to the organization obviously means a lot,” Counsell said. ”It helps you understand the organization just because you’ve been a part of it and known it for a while. It helps you know the history; it helps you know the people. … I feel a responsibility to baseball in this state and in this city. I take that seriously.”

In addition to Brind’Amour, only three other current coaches or managers have won championships while playing for those teams: Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton won two titles as a forward in the 2000s, Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was a backup quarterback on two Super Bowl-winning teams in the 1990s, and Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was part of that club’s World Series-winning team in 2007.

Raleigh’s small-town feel also affords Brind’Amour the chance to be a normal father. In a scene that might be hard to imagine in one of hockey’s pressure-cooker cities, Brind’Amour spent the spring coaching first base as an assistant for his son’s T-ball team in the suburb of Wake Forest.

The team’s head coach, Matt Greene, described Brind’Amour as ”an active, involved dad” and said watching him with the young players was like ”watching the magic work.

”He was talking to the kids about baseball … (and) the parents are talking about hockey, (with the parents telling him) `I’ve got my son signed up for hockey next spring Devin Hester Jersey ,”’ Greene said. ”But Rod was talking to the kid, and putting it more on the kids. Not that Rod was the star, but the kid was the star in baseball.”

Brind’Amour, the son-in-law of former North Carolina State basketball player and ex-UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach, connected with the Raleigh community pretty quickly after his 2000 arrival, and he hopes the current players can do the same.

”We’re a younger team now, but as they get older … they’re going to see that this is a great place to raise a family,” he said. ”The people here are just friendly, they’re down-to-earth and it’s a comforting type of lifestyle. At the end of the day, we all try to be a champion and we want to be a Stanley Cup champion, but there’s other parts of life, too, that are important.

”Being a hockey player, being successful, you’ve got to feel good about where you live,” he added. ”We’ve checked that part off. Now we’ve just got to get the hockey part dialed in.”

—

AP freelance writer Charles Gardner in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

.