- I’ve been saying since some point last season that the only two matchups that mattered were the Oklahoma City Thunder and the L.A. Clippers, because a) those were the only two top teams who completely neutralized Dwight Howard and b) aside from the Spurs, against whom Dwight has success, those were the top two teams in the league. I’ve since changed that thinking, exclusively because neither of those teams have been relevant this year. But still, both squads will certainly bounce back next season, or even by this year’s playoffs, and still, the matchup is a point of curiosity. Would the insertion of Motiejunas into the lineup change things in Houston’s favor? While the Rockets have defeated the Thunder in the past, I’d note that last night was the first during the James Harden era that I didn’t remark to myself, “we can’t compete with these guys athletically.” Motiejunas pretty badly outplayed Serge Ibaka, and it became clear pretty quickly that the Thunder just simply had no one who could matchup with Josh Smith on their bench. More on Smith later.
- Houston started the game using Howard on the weak-side where he is at his best, either posting Motiejunas, or penetrating the defense and lobbing it to the former when the Thunder defense collapsed. As Chris Webber noted, this is the only way to beat the Thunder because they load up in the paint. It appears the Rockets finally smartened up. (That, and they’ve undergone a massive talent upgrade swapping Jones for Motiejunas and acquiring Smith). Motiejunas was very easily able to establish position against Ibaka and would have scored more points had a few of his attempts not rolled out. Watching him easily back down one of the best big man defenders in basketball was pretty eye-opening:
#GOATiejunas. https://t.co/sV6Jh9uDl8
— RedNinetyFour (@RedNinetyFour) January 16, 2015
After seeing him do the same thing against Joakim Noah, it’s become clear that D-Mo is one of the best postup players in all of basketball.
- At the other end, he was able to limit Ibaka’s productivity and keep him off the boards. While it might be premature and homerish to call Motiejunas a “star”, we finally have no reason to think we’ll get killed nightly at the power forward position against the good teams in the league.
- When Josh Smith came in, and ran roughshod over the Thunder second unit, I said to myself, “they can’t matchup with him,” noting it was the first time I had ever made that observation about any Rockets player in this Thunder matchup, Harden included. He is too skilled offensively to be limited by anyone on Oklahoma City’s bench, and he has the length and the athleticism to contend with Serge Ibaka and Kevin Durant at the other end. And this is why it was an absolute no-brainer to pick Josh Smith up. Make all you want about the turnovers and the bad shots, but at the end of the day, you have to have enough talent on your team to win a championship, and until recently, Houston did not have that. The Rockets have never had the size and length to compete with the West’s best, even last year because Asik couldn’t share the court with Howard. Houston will probably lose in one of the earlier rounds again, for other reasons, but it definitely won’t be for a personnel issue.
- Is it just me or have James Harden’s handles vastly improved this year? In particular, this move
Harden over Durant. https://t.co/7HTjabv4Zt
— RedNinetyFour (@RedNinetyFour) January 16, 2015
is not one I recall him having in the past, and it seems to have become his go-to. In the past, he would only go between the legs once and cross out in front of him, rather than the Hardaway between the legs twice action.
- I’m seriously expecting Harden to drop 50 against the Warriors, a) because he seems irritated by the insinuation that Klay Thompson is anywhere in his league, and b) because I know how badly he wants to knock those guys off.
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