5. Avoid Foul Trouble
The first key may be the most impossible task in all of professional basketball: avoiding foul trouble against the Houston Rockets. James Harden leads an offense that’s more than capable of running up the score up without free throws, but has an uncanny ability to draw contact.
If the New York Knicks aren’t careful, they’ll run into the same issues that plagued them during the first regular season meeting with Houston in 2016-17.
The first time around, the Knicks sent the Rockets to the charity stripe for an unforgivable 27 free throw attempts. That may seem like more of an outlier than a common occurrence, but New York is allowing an average of 25.6 free throw attempts per contest.
Foul trouble has destroyed the Knicks’ attempts at developing chemistry in 2016-17, and Houston can continue to make life difficult on New Year’s Eve.
Houston ranks No. 14 in the NBA at 23.8 free throw attempts per game, but that’s a misleading number. Harden is No. 2 in the NBA with 10.1 free throw attempts per game on his own, which is a sign that he can disrupt New York’s entire rhythm.
Keeping Harden and the Rockets off of the free throw line will be the first step in the long path towards victory.