HOUSTON -- James Harden told the truth, as sobering as it may be for the Houston Rockets.

“We don’t want to be down 0-2,” the shooting guard said Tuesday. “I wouldn’t call it desperate; I just call it a sense of urgency, just going out there and competing at a high level and doing the things we do on a consistent basis.”

After the Rockets lost Game 1 of their second-round series to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night, phrases like "missing an edge," "lack of composure" and "outplayed" flowed from the Rockets' locker room and interview room.

Following an hourlong film session and walk-through Tuesday, the Rockets talked of increasing their energy level, fixing some spacing issues on offense and becoming more aggressive on defense to make sure a Game 3 in Los Angeles doesn’t become a desperate situation.

“The energy has to be better. When your energy is high everything falls into line after that,” center Dwight Howard said. “They played harder than us yesterday. That’s why they won the game. It wasn’t like they did anything special. They ran the floor, rebounded well and they played as a team and that’s why they won the game.”

On offense, the Rockets shot 39.1 percent in the fourth quarter, were outscored 71-51 in the second half and didn’t have good flow on offense.

Harden struggled with the Clippers' trapping on defense. Harden said he’s got to move faster to avoid double-teams and make smart decisions when he passes the ball. Out of his team-high 83 touches in Game 1, Harden made 54 passes and finished with 12 assists and a game-high nine turnovers.

“I got to rely on my teammates,” Harden said. “All year they’ve done a great job of making the good plays in the same situation when they trap me. They put two on the ball, give it up, find my teammates and make the next play.”

In comparison, power forward Blake Griffin, who finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists, touched the ball a game-high 123 times, which was 35 more times than point guards Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni combined.

Howard touched the ball 62 times and finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, but didn’t get significant touches in the fourth quarter. Howard scored six points in the first 10 fourth-quarter possessions, but didn't attempt a shot in the final 6½ minutes of the game.

“I can’t focus on that, I got to continue to be a presence on the defensive end, get more blocked shots, get more rebounds, run the floor more [and] do all those things,” Howard said. “I cannot focus so much on if I’m getting the ball or not. There were some times my teammates missed me and there were times I missed my teammates, but that can’t be my focus and I won’t let it stop me from doing all the things that I can for this team.”

One possible solution to the Rockets' woes could be a change at point guard in the fourth quarter.

In fourth quarters this postseason, the Rockets are minus-39.4 with Terry on the floor and plus-20.9 with Prigioni. In their two postseason losses (Game 4 to Dallas in the opening round and Game 1 to the Clippers) Houston is plus-25.1 without Terry on the floor and minus-4.3 without Prigioni.

McHale said Prigioni closed games in the past but said the struggles of the offense shouldn’t be attributed to Terry.

The Rockets' performance on defense baffled McHale because the team didn’t employ any of the strategies worked on during practices to counter Griffin.

“We played him an unknown way,” McHale said.

While the Rockets prepared as if Chris Paul would participate in Game 1, they allowed his replacement, Austin Rivers, to score 17 points.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers said his team doesn’t care much about offensive rebounds, because the Clippers would rather get back to set up their defense. Still, the Rockets were out-rebounded 42-35 overall and gave up nine offensive rebounds.

Forwards Matt Barnes and Griffin combined to make 17 of 30 shots and DeAndre Jordan had 10 points and 13 rebounds. He also made 6 of 11 free throws as McHale employed the Hack-a-DeAndre strategy at times. Howard, who missed all four regular-season games against the Clippers because of injury, said after playing against Jordan he'll have a much better effort.

“If I had all the answers -- again, I’ve said it a million times -- I would run Wall Street and I wouldn’t talk to you chumps,” McHale said. “I’m out there trying to get our guys to play. We did not play well. They didn’t have a lot of juice. They had very vacant eyes; they just looked like they were running in mud. If I knew how to get them out of it you wouldn’t think I would give them the elixir?”