The Rockets were riding high after extending their winning streak to four games on Thursday.
Houston guard John Wall, who scored 20 points and dished out six assists in the win over Portland, didn't hold back when asked to explain the team's recent turnaround.
Wall, acquired in the offseason trade that sent Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards, suggested the team is beginning to jell in the wake of the Jan. 14 four-team blockbuster that brought an end to the James Harden era in Houston.
Specifically, Wall seemed to call out Harden when he mentioned "people that didn't want to be here."
"The team wasn’t where we wanted to be, and we had people that didn’t want to be here," he told reporters. "So it’s kind of hard to play through that. Once the trade happened, we got the team that we wanted and guys that wanted to be here."
The megadeal, which brought former Pacers star Victor Oladipo back to Houston, has been closely scrutinized by NBA observers and fans since it came down earlier this month.
The Rockets, who started the season 3-6 while a potential Harden trade was looming over the team, are 5-3 since Harden's exit, while the Brooklyn Nets are 5-2 with him on board.
Oladipo joins Wall and DeMarcus Cousins as former All-Stars coming off injuries who are trying to reestablish themselves on a rebuilding Rockets team. Houston veterans including Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker and Danuel House remain as holdovers from the Harden era, while newcomer Christian Wood is one of the focal points of the team's new offensive attack.
The Wizards, meanwhile, appear to be missing Wall. The team was off to a rough 3-11 start that included a series of postponements due to a coronavirus outbreak, and Westbrook looked out of sync with a new cast that boasted few notables outside of All-Star guard Bradley Beal.
Beal, long the topic of trade rumors, conceded he was frustrated by the team's losing -- "Is the sky blue?" he told a reporter this week -- while his wife said she was "sick of it."