In many ways, the Houston Rockets team’s meeting in the tense Toyota Center locker room after a second consecutive loss to the Lakers last Tuesday was the perfect encapsulation of the emotional roller coaster that had been the start of their 2020-21 season .
Failure. Frustration. Friction. Everything was open – finally.
From a purely basketball-related point of view, the meeting was inevitable, considering the start of 3-6. The team was playing with a lack of energy and intensity on both ends of the court, the first growing pains of a new system under first year coach Stephen Silas were stark, and a list that now included John Wall in Russell’s old post. Westbrook and seven other new players were wiped out by a combination of minor injuries and protocol violations related to COVID-19.
But outside the courtroom, where James Harden’s commercial demand in late October had made their professional lives so miserable for the past 10 weeks, the meeting was …