Rockets coach wants ‘mentally sharper’ team for Game 2

LOS ANGELES, United States – Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni says his team must eradicate mental mistakes to have any chance of levelling their NBA Western Conference finals series against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, May 16.  

The top-seeded Rockets suffered a chastening 119-106 home defeat to the reigning NBA champions in Game 1 on Monday.

A second victory for Golden State on Wednesday would leave Houston with a mountain to climb when the best-of-7 series heads back to California for game three on Sunday.

D’Antoni said the combination of lapses in concentration at key times combined with Kevin Durant’s 37 points for Golden State were “devastating” in Game 1.

“They’re obviously champions for a reason,” D’Antoni said. “If we want to beat them, we have to be mentally sharper.” 

“We’ll get that better. We’ll make some adjustments on little things that we can do better.”

“To knock these guys out, we’ve got to play a lot better offensively also,” D’Antoni said.

He said he did not think that the failure to capitalize on home advantage in Game 1 would cause lasting psychological damage for his team.

“We can’t think about this game other than make adjustments,” he said. “But we’ve got to come out and win the game on Wednesday, and we’ll see what happens. We can win here, we can win there.” – Rappler.com