The Rockets had three shot-clock violations in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, though it felt like seven. On its worst possessions, Houston’s brand of basketball can seem like a bastardized vision of the sport, as if a glitch had somehow implanted the stalled-out, pre-shot-clock game of the 1940s into 2018. Four players, frozen in place as the shot clock dwindles down to two seconds. It feels wrong—not only in visage but in theory. Daryl Morey has admittedly been obsessed with beating the Warriors, the NBA’s white whale; this isolation-heavy offense can’t possibly be the answer to Golden State’s riddle, can it? After Houston’s 119-106 loss at home in the opening game, it remains the question on everyone’s mind.
The postseason has, year after year, served as…
