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Rockets struggling to recapture mojo as postseason nears

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The losing streak is now three games, the longest of the season. The star player is playing hurt and being targeted. And the Golden State Warriors, the team the Houston Rockets have been designed to beat, have three regular-season victories on the ledger against the team from Texas.

Other than a 107-98 Friday night loss at Oracle Arena, things are going just fine for the Rockets.

“We’re good,” James Harden said.

Are the Rockets truly good?

Harden is playing through a sore left wrist that took a hard hit by Warriors forward Draymond Green. Harden didn’t look too comfortable during the game, going 4-of-18 from the field and finishing with 17 points and eight assists.

The easy thing is for Harden to sit the final weeks of the season to get well. It’s not going to happen because the MVP race is too close and Harden wants to play.

The Rockets pretty much own the third seed in the Western Conference, yet it’s becoming difficult for them to find their edge before the postseason.

“Right now we have an opportunity [to finish strong],” Harden said. “We showed signs we’re really good and show signs where we’re just going through the motions. We pretty much have the three seed locked in, we've got a few injuries [due to which people] are missing, three in four nights, a lot of things building up. We've just got to get through it, keep fighting, and we’ll be all right.”

Ryan Anderson is out with a sprained right ankle, and he’s missed. Friday night, Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon picked up the scoring with Harden struggling to find his shot. The two vets combined for 30 points, but missed 15 out of 25 shots to do it.

Clint Capela and Montrezl Harrell fought well inside -- Capela had 14 rebounds and Harrell displayed a lot of energy in 21 minutes.

But the Warriors protected the rim with 14 blocked shots, and Green, who later said he punched Harden in the wrist after getting pinched in the stomach, was a defensive stopper. The Rockets went 3-for-17 on shots when Green was the primary defender.

The Rockets went through a seven-minute scoring drought, and coach Mike D’Antoni did not like the shots his team was getting.

“They got more intense,” D’Antoni said of the Warriors. “They stripped us a lot of times and blocked shots at the rim. We just didn’t have a nice offense and they got us. Defensively we were pretty good; we held them in check most of the game. We did a good enough job to win, but offensively we went through about seven minutes where we’re trying to manipulate the game, instead of attacking and playing.”

If the Rockets are going to move forward in the postseason, they must somehow play a complete game against the Warriors. That double-overtime victory for the Rockets over the Warriors on Dec. 1 seems like a year ago, as Golden State has won the last three regular-season games.

Houston is a good team, an elite team that finished March with a 9-6 record. With just six games remaining in the regular season, it has to somehow reach the postseason on a positive note.

Patrick Beverley probably summed up the mood of the team after Friday's loss when he said the Rockets just “missed shots.”

When he was asked what he said to Green at the final buzzer, Beverley said, “See them in the Western Conference finals.”