Houston Rockets Building Depth and Thriving Despite Depleted Roster
Between the two-way terror of the Memphis Grizzlies and their own injury woes, the Houston Rockets probably had no business winning Wednesday night.
Instead, it was the Rockets giving the Grizzlies the business end of only their third loss of the young season.
In dispatching Memphis (15-3)—a 105-96 shellacking that was much worse than the digits might suggest—the Rockets (14-4) improved to 5-2 since center Dwight Howard was first sidelined with a minor knee injury Nov. 19.
More importantly, Houston showed its much-maligned depth is—slowly but surely—coming into its own, as illustrated by coach Kevin McHale's comments, per the Rockets:
| Player | Points | Rebounds | Assists | |
| Dwight Howard | 18.8 | 11.3 | 1.3 | |
| Patrick Beverley | 12.6 | 4.3 | 2.1 | |
| Terrence Jones | 14.0 | 7.5 | 1.5 |
Paced by James Harden’s 21 points (on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor), all five Rockets starters finished in double figures, a feat they nearly completed in their 117-103 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.
Thanks to timely contributions from would-be reserves Donatas Motiejunas and Tarik Black, Houston is steadily building the kind of depth it'll need if it hopes to make a deep playoff push come spring.
Truth be told, there was never anywhere to go but up. Per HoopsStats.com, the Rockets entered Wednesday’s tilt 29th in the league in raw bench production (22.8 points per game).
That includes an equally forgettable 32.4 percent clip from three-point range, an area of the floor Houston has made its chief strategic weapon in recent years, as noted by its league-leading three-point field-goals-made stats:
No one’s expecting the Rockets—who finished the 2013-14 campaign 26th in bench scoring, per HoopsStats.com—to suddenly match the San Antonio Spurs in terms of top-to-bottom cohesion. But neither can they afford to ignore the importance of a strong supporting cast.
If there’s a silver lining for Houston to snag amid its recent slew of injuries, it’s this.
On this night anyway, Houston’s reserves played an outsized role in helping put one of the league’s elite defenses on its heels—and keeping it there, as pointed out by the Rockets and Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:
With Howard still day-to-day with a right-knee sprain and forward Terrence Jones still recovering from nerve damage in his leg, the Rockets can use all the pleasant surprises they can get—particularly with 10 of their next 17 games coming against returning playoff teams.
Jones in particular had been something of a revelation during the season’s early going, averaging 14.0 points and 7.5 rebounds on 52.1 percent shooting (including 42.9 percent from distance) over four games.
In his stead, Motiejunas has stepped in. The versatile Lithuanian forward was acquired in a 2011 draft-day trade and spent parts of the last two seasons making hay in the D-League.
Motiejunas may not provide Jones’ brand of athleticism and outside shooting, but his rebounding and post presence have been crucial in helping fill the void left in Howard’s absence.
Motiejunas and Black’s limited range aside, the Rockets aren’t exactly hurting for three-point looks. In fact, according to NBA.com (subscription required), Houston has attempted 4.1 more triples per game (up from 32.8 to 36.9) in the two weeks since Howard’s initial injury—and is hitting them at a slightly higher clip (36.9 percent versus 34.9 percent prior to Nov. 19).
Recently, CBSSports.com's Zach Harper took a deep dive into what makes Houston’s offense—which is about much more than mere three-point bombs and Harden flops—so potent:
"They don't blow anybody away with their 3-point percentage, sitting 14th in the NBA at 35.3 percent. But if you're taking a historic rate of 3's and you're just average, shouldn't that eventually result in tipping the scale of your offensive efficiency and get that 23rd ranked offense to sky rocket as the season progresses?
That assumes the rest of the offense improves. Their offense around the rim is pretty inefficient, making just 57.5 percent of their shots in the restricted area (26th in the NBA).
The Rockets believe the 3-point line will be a major piece of the puzzle that takes them to the promise land. You combine that with Howard leading the defensive effort and Harden being the offensive catalyst, the recipe for success makes sense in theory.
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As players such as Patrick Beverley (expected to return soon from an injured hamstring, according to the Houston Chronicle, via R.J. White of CBSSports.com), Troy Daniels and rookies Kostas Papanikolaou and Nick Johnson become more comfortable in coach Kevin McHale’s helter-skelter offense, the more we should expect Houston’s efficiency to improve.
That’s great news for the Rockets and their analytics-leaning allies, and it's terrible news for the rest of the league.
If Houston’s six-game loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in last year’s playoffs proved anything, it’s that not even a duo as devastating and dynamic as Harden and Howard is enough to guarantee conference contention.
If anything, bowing out to Portland (a team that finished dead last in bench production in each of the last two seasons, according to HoopsStats.com) should hammer home the importance of making sure one’s depth is as wide and broad as one's shooting range.
Then again, maybe all it took was setbacks of a smaller sort—injuries too early and too benign to pay serious mind—to make Houston heed what the numbers couldn’t.
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