By: Forrest Walker
If this was the only Houston Rockets game you've watched all season, you might think they were picking up where they left off last season. The defense was solid, the passes were crisp, the final score was favorable and Ty Lawson didn't appear to be on the team. Once the Rockets learned how to put the ball in the hole, it was smooth sailing for a Rockets team clearly looking to re-establish themselves in the second half of the season. They showed that on at least one night, they can put away a team they should absolutely be able to put away. Now they just have to show themselves that this isn't a one-time deal.
Rather than being rusty, the Rockets looked like they used the All-Star break to drill and improve. They might have preferred to do that a lot sooner, but if they see any kind of sustained uptick, it's better late than never. Josh Smith started over the non-existent Terrence Jones, the not-actually-suitable for power forward Clint Capela, the rookie Montrezl Harrell, and the ghost of the dearly-(trade)-departed Donatas Motiejunas. Smith wasn't exactly a help on the offensive side, but the defense was there. The whole team played defense well, and it was both surprising and mission critical.
The Rockets shot remarkably badly in the first 18 minutes of the game, managing to crack 20 points in the first quarter by pace alone. Before embarking on a scorching 20-5 run in the middle of the game, the Rockets actually trailed for a time, almost completely due to their inability to score. Like last season's Rockets, the team relied on intense, athletic defense to keep the Suns to sub-40% shooting and stay with them until their own shooting regressed to the mean. Perhaps Rockets general manager Daryl Morey bought a time machine and brought last season's team in to help out. Perhaps the Rockets finally slew the pod people who had been impersonating them. Perhaps the situation finally got bad enough, and expectations got lowered enough to spur them to action. Whatever the case, it worked for a game.
Ty Lawson was left out of this exercise, however, and finished the game with 1 point and 2 assists in 20 minutes.
The Rockets didn't seem worse for the loss of Motiejunas, probably because he was hurt and hadn't been playing anyway. They did, however, look better without Terrence Jones, who remains in recovery from an automobile accident on February 3rd. If the Rockets have learned anything in the past year or so, it's to let players recover as fully as possible before returning to play, and hopefully Jones will be back to 100% when he does return. Hopefully he will be 100% of his good self, not the pod person version.
Harden needed 3 assists for a triple double. Ariza shot 8-12. Howard changed shots on defense. The team passed the ball a lot, and they turned a lot of steals into fast breaks. Tyson Chandler was hurt, and the Suns are awful, but it was still good. It was a good and impressive game, and the Rockets did a good job. There's not much else to say about a game that could have been so much worse. All that's left is to see what they do from here on out.
