It’s starting to look like deja vu all over again for the Houston Rockets. Last season they won 56 games and advanced to the Western Conference Finals while dealing with all sorts of injuries.
Dwight Howard played in 41 games, Terrence Jones 33, Patrick Beverley 56 and Donatas Motiejunas 71 — they fought through it using mash units and an MVP-type season from James Harden.
We’re only five games into 2015-’16, and the Rockets are dealing with more of the same. Dwight Howard has missed two games and Terrence Jones has sat out three. Howard doesn’t look 100 percent despite being effective when playing. There’s no indication when Motiejunas is going to return from his back injury, which required season-ending surgery in 2014-’15.
With Harden returning to form, the Rockets were able to pull out a 110-105 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Toyota Center on Monday. The “Beard” exploded for 37 points on 12-of-26 shooting in 37 minutes. In the opening three losses Harden, made four threes on 25 attempts; he connected on 4-12 threes opposite his old team. His shooting slumped again in Wednesday’s win over the Orlando Magic, but I’m still not concerned about Harden.
Last season, the team needed random contributions from a once-thought-to-be-done Jason Terry, plus Tarik Black (who was eventually traded), Corey Brewer, and Pablo Prigioni. The latter two players arrived in deals. The team also signed Josh Smith midseason.
This need for new parts is already apparent once again in Houston, given the injuries the club has to confront. The ability of these new players to help the team through rough patches is also emerging once more. Marcus Thornton looks like he can help the Rockets. The shooting guard played in only 48 games last season, split between the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics. He averaged 7.9 points on 40% shooting overall, but he did connect on 38% of his threes. Since entering Houston’s rotation and starting lineup at small forward the last three games, Thornton has scored 17 points per game while hitting 45 percent of his threes.
Thornton’s game fits perfectly with what the Rockets want to do on offense — unabashedly chuck threes with no conscience. He’s averaged 6.4 three-point attempts per 36 minutes in his career, and has lifted that number to 7.9 in his 68 minutes so far. He won’t keep playing at this level, but there’s no reason he can’t be a solid bench contributor as the Rockets get healthier (hopefully).
Ty Lawson’s adding another dimension to Houston’s offense. When the ball swings side to side, his ability to attack a defense on the move — rather than using Patrick Beverley in such a role — makes the Rockets tougher to defend. Three-guard lineups with Lawson, Beverley and Harden should be able to work, considering Harden’s probably better off guarding up a position rather than his own. Beverley is feisty enough to deal with shooting guards; also, good luck trying to post him up.
At 2-3, the Rockets currently have the fifth-worst net rating in the NBA with a minus-11.4 number. There’s too much talent on the roster for it to continue, and the upcoming schedule gives them a chance to get above .500 pretty quickly. Four of their next five games are against the Kings, Nets, Nuggets and Mavericks, with a game at the Clippers mixed in.
Houston still isn’t right, but it should be soon.
