James Harden doesn’t turn the heat down for long. He bounced back from one of his worst games of the season to stir-fry the Indiana Pacers with a season-high 45 points. He brought out the spoon after a dagger three late in the fourth, stirring the Pacers as he jogged back on defense. He turned back around, buried another three, and had no choice but to use both hands, the defining moment of the game. Harden might have lost the battle to Steph Curry, but he doesn’t intend to lose the war, and today the Indiana Pacers were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The good news for the Pacers is that they’ve got a great head coach in Frank Vogel, a solid defensive system and a two-way star player on the bench in Paul George. The bad news on January 19th is that they had to face off with Houston, a very good team coming off a very bad loss. The Pacers kept it at around ten points most of the night, and even closed it back up in the fourth after the Rockets had ballooned the lead to over twenty. They did a lot with a little, but in the end it was too late. James Harden, Dwight Howard, and the supporting cast of the Rockets were just too talented and too coordinated.
The Rockets shot 51% overall, 38% from deep, and 73% from the stripe. That’s a winning recipe any day of the week, and something the Rockets will try to replicate against the Warriors. The Pacers may have a poor record, but their defense is 7th by efficiency, making this offensive output all the more impressive. Nobody on the Pacers had an answer for James Harden, something which most teams have in common. His pick and roll partnership with Dwight Howard has never looked so natural, and the two members of H&H were rewarded handily for it. Harden logged the line of the game, racking up 45 points on an ungodly 12-18 shooting, including a truly mind-bending 7-12 from deep. He only had one board, but his 7 assists, 4 steals and a block more than made up for it (and five turnovers). Howard, meanwhile, cleaned up messes, finished alley-oops and generally ran the show in the paint. 6 shots, 14 points and 17 rebounds is a fantastic game for Dwight Howard 2015.
In the headband report, Corey Brewer shot poorly from three (1-4), but finished well around the rim to end with 13 points on 6-10 shooting. He created chaos in a good way for Houston, still looking like a great pickup. Josh Smith, on the other hand, created chaos in a less good way, shooting a dismal 3-11, but pulling down 7 rebounds. This time he tried to do too much, going into the teeth of a high-quality defense a bit too often. His feast or famine game seems to be in famine mode at the moment, but there’s no telling when that changes next. Jason Terry, for his part, only played 19 minutes and went 3-5 from the field. He’s doing his job, and that’s what he does most of the time.
Patrick Beverley shot well from behind the arc (2-4) but those ended up being his only points on his 6 shots. His 2 rebounds and 4 steals weren’t impressive, but his three steals were critical in keeping the Pacers at arm’s length. Trevor Ariza had a similar outing, notching an identically impressive 3 steals but surrounding that with only one rebound, three assists, and a single made triple in five tries. 9 points on 7 shots isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good either. The Rockets defense, Beverley and Ariza’s forte, was generally solid, but had enough lapses that CJ Miles and Donald Sloan were allowed to go off for 23 and 17 points respectively. The Rockets’ defense has slid recently, and it’s only recently been improving again. The struggle continues for a bench unit that’s still figuring itself out.
Donatas Motiejunas had a quiet night according to his new standards, something which shows just how high his bar has been raised. He shot 4-8, scored 10 points, pulled down 9 rebounds and dished 4 assists. He’s become a real renaissance man at the four, and his development has been critical for this Rockets team’s fortunes. With Terrence Jones coming closer and closer to recovery, the battle for starting power forward might be the best problem the Rockets could have.
The Rockets needed to forget a nightmare they suffered a couple days ago, and their boiling of the Pacers was just the way to go about it. The lead could have ballooned earlier and to greater size, but leading by twenty in the third quarter is never a bad sign. The Pacers showed grit and tenacity, and those traits may serve them well next season. Too bad today it’s 2015, and chef Harden is in the kitchen.
