By: Paul McGuire
I have made it clear in past recaps and roundtables that I have real issues with certain aspects of this Rockets squad – their three-point shooting is not strong enough and they do not have enough size without Howard among other concerns. Even though Houston has the rarest and most important part of a championship team, a true MVP candidate, their flaws will likely prevent them from winning the championship this year. Nevertheless, I remain irritated that the Rockets continue to be overlooked as a championship team for reasons beyond said flaws. Even the Spurs, a team that has never looked this bad in the Duncan era, are given more credibility. The reason seems to be nothing more than a shallow declaration of how the Rockets are soft and Harden does not have “it” – just like Dirk did not have “it” before 2011 and LeBron before 2012.
Well, maybe winning 40 games before losing 20, Phil Jackson’s mark on what makes a contender, will change the tone. Only the Hawks, Warriors, and Grizzlies have accomplished the same, while Portland could at the time of this writing. And if that was not good enough, the Rockets did not have to ask Harden to shoulder everything tonight. The Beard was not the scoring machine that he usually is due to his sprained ankle, but Houston still prevailed over an inferior Brooklyn with a true team effort.
But even though the Rockets won, the Brooklyn Nets led for the vast majority of the game. The Rockets started off slow and fell behind by double digits early in the first quarter, but the Rockets bench erased that lead by the 3:30 mark of the next quarter. But whenever the Rockets grabbed a small lead and seemed poised to make a run, their offense sputtered. Harden was relentlessly double-teamed for the entire game, and so the Rockets struggled to find other scorers for much of the night.
Trevor Ariza and Patrick Beverley stepped in to fill the offense, a welcome answer as they returned to playing at a level resembling NBA basketball. Ariza in particular was on fire from long-range for the second straight game, and finished with 20 points on 11 shots. Beverley struggled to shoot for most of the game, but he showed up when it counted most by hitting a wide open three pointer with a minute left to complete a late 12-4 Rockets run that tied the game. Both of them did struggle to guard Brooklyn’s wing lineup – Joe Johnson and Alan Anderson are big swingmen who repeatedly outbigged Ariza and Beverley – but it was still a great bounce back game from the rest of the season.
And of course, there was Terrence Jones. The Nets have some good big men, and Brook Lopez toyed with the Howard-less Rockets for most of the fourth quarter, especially on the offensive glass. Motiejunas scored points with that baby hook shot of his and Josh Smith had some great blocks, but Terrence Jones ran around carrying the frontcourt and the Rockets tonight. Rahat and others have compared Jones to a young Josh Smith, but Jones comes with the advantage of not thinking he’s a three-point shooter. All nine of his made field goals came close to the basket, including a shot where he double clutched to prevent getting blocked by Lopez.
And thanks to Jones, Joey Dorsey only played 2 minutes tonight after not playing at all against the Clippers. The Rockets rotation is readjusting itself in the aftermath of the trade deadline, with Prigioni finally getting rotation minutes at the point guard spot. K.J. McDaniels may have been the more visible acquisition from last week, but Pablo Prigioni is here to fill a very big hole in Houston’s passing.
P.S. Hi, Smith. You had your period when you shot 3’s well. That was pretty cool. Now don’t do it again. Don’t take 5 three-pointers in a game. You were doing well enough when you played inside the rim, and maybe you should continue to do that.
Tonight was not a pretty victory, and it was a game in which the Brooklyn Nets led for most of the time. But the Houston Rockets accomplished the bare minimum and hit the right shots to achieve victory over the Nets, thanks largely to Ariza and Jones. And now they sit with the fourth-best record in the NBA. Harden may be the rock on which everything rests – but it will be nice to see if people pay attention to the Rockets and not just him.
