Why Houston Rockets Are Thriving Without Dwight Howard, Others
For all that has been said over the years about Dwight Howard, with opinions ranging from one extreme to the other in ways that would not seem possible, he's never had the chance to demonstrate the quality that he has this season.
The guy really is a snappy dresser. He wears bright colors. He favors bow ties and pulls off the look. Current fashion has caught up to his long-held taste for tight fits. And with his absence from the Rockets lineup expected to reach three full weeks when the Rockets face the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, he'll have another chance to show off the variety of looks perfect for a night with the fellas on the bench.
This was never his or the Houston Rockets' plan. Sharp-dressed man that he's been, Howard could be close to happily wearing the Rockets' red and white. But something unexpected has happened despite Howard and so many teammates being forced to the training room.
The Rockets keep winning.
In a season that began with Howard considered irreplaceable and the Rockets' depth considered questionable at best (after offseason cap-clearing moves pulled Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik from the roster), the Rockets have played half the season without Howard, and as many as four other rotation players at a time have been relegated to formal attire. Yet somehow they stand at 16-4, two games shy of the Warriors' NBA-best record.
The Rockets are 7-2 since Howard limped away from Memphis on November 17. Howard was a last-minute scratch two days later before the Rockets faced the Lakers, when Houston took its worst loss of the season. Howard's injury, originally thought to be far more short-term (he was initially called "day-to-day"), seemed to be one too many.
Fellow starters Patrick Beverley and Terrence Jones were already out. Isaiah Canaan, who replaced Patrick Beverley in the starting lineup, would soon follow with a sprained ankle. Kostas Papanikolaou, who replaced Donatas Motiejunas as a backup power forward while Motiejunas replaced Jones as a starter, went out with a sprained knee. Francisco Garcia, playing small forward while Papanikoloau filled in as an undersized power forward, went out with a sore leg.
Through 20 games, the Rockets have trotted out 10 starters in eight different lineups, none for more than four games. They have not had their planned starting lineup—Howard, Jones, Trevor Ariza, James Harden and Beverley—since the second game of the season.
Yet the great number of injuries have kept too much focus from the one injury that was thought to be the one the Rockets could not have overcome.
More than that, the Rockets have refused to consider themselves too short-handed to win.
Friday, they pulled out a win against Minnesota after Harden fouled out. The next night, they held on to beat the Suns with Harden struggling to move with back pain.
"We showed toughness and especially a lot of character," said guard Pat Beverley, who returned on Saturday and drove the Rockets to the win late. "We showed a lot of poise even though we've been down on numbers. No matter who it is, we've had someone stepping up, someone different every night. That shows the character of the team. That's going to help in the long run.
"A lot of guys have gone down. It seems like one guy gets healthy, another guy, another two guys fall. But we've been showing a lot of character. That's what we have to do until we're back in full force."
In the Rockets' past nine games without Howard, they knocked off the Grizzlies, Mavericks and Suns with largely the same formula. They relied on a defense dramatically improved on the perimeter since last season to keep teams from exploiting the absence of Howard inside. They leaned heavily on Harden to carry the offense and then did just enough to win down the stretch.
The Rockets are second in points allowed per possession, third in points allowed per game and opposing field-goal percentage and first in opposing three-point percentage. They are 5-0 in games decided by five or fewer points, with four of those wins among the seven without Howard (he also missed the first meeting with the Warriors when he was sent home with flu-like symptoms).
"It's a credit to those guys," head coach Kevin McHale said. "They've come in and talked about (that) no one in the league cares if you're hurt or not. We can't feel sorry for ourselves.
"The guys who have played have played well. That's a credit to them. Everybody wants the opportunity to play. Everybody doesn't get the opportunity all the time. But boy, when you're number is called and you do perform, it does give me a lot of confidence in them, and it gives me a lot of pride in those guys to know they care and they work."
That is how Tarik Black made the team in the first place, going from an undrafted rookie with a non-guaranteed contract to a roster spot and a place in the rotation as the backup center. But while he has replaced Howard as the Rockets' starter, he does not do Howard's job.
Instead, as with each of the Rockets fill-ins, Black just does what he can. He does not get Howard's low-post touches and is not the same sort of rim protector. But he battles defensively, cuts hard on pick-and-rolls and rebounds.
Motiejunas has picked up some of the scoring slack, averaging 13.9 points on 58.1 percent shooting since Howard’s injury. Jason Terry went from slumping to sensational in the three games after Canaan went out, averaging 16.5 points on 48 percent shooting.
Even rookie Nick Johnson went from D-League to rotation player to scoring the game-winner with eight-tenths of a second left in Minnesota. He scored eight points a night later in a win against the Suns.
A year ago, the Rockets lost their 20th game of the season to the Suns when they could not overcome injuries to Chandler Parsons, Greg Smith, Asik and Lin. When injuries hit again late in the season, with Howard and Beverley going out, the Rockets slumped on their way to the postseason.
This season, they have overcome more injuries, indicating a toughness they might have lacked when it was needed most.
"We're banged up a bit, but we're able to fight through adversity," Harden said. "Things have happened, and we've been able to push through and come together as a team. I think that's very important early in the season. That way, if it hits us later, we'll be ready for it."
With the most recent injuries (to Papanikolaou and Garcia), the Rockets have begun to run out of frontcourt options. Teenage project Clint Capela was brought back from the D-League largely to provide another practice body. But the Rockets said they would maintain the same determination to find a way to win anyway.
"Someone's going to have to step up," McHale has said many times in many ways before returning to the theme every coach preaches. "Every injury is an opportunity. Guys are going to have to play. The next man up is going to have to step up.
"We'll have to go small. We're just going to have to make it work. People want to know, 'How can you work when guys get hurt?' You win if other guys step up and play well."
The latest round of injuries has made Harden the backup power forward, to go with everything he has had to do to carry the Rockets offense.
The Rockets have used Harden defensively against power forwards before. He matched up with Serge Ibaka for several games in the 2013 playoffs, including both Rockets wins. The Rockets increasingly switched on screens last season, often pitting Harden against much bigger post-up threats. In the last game Howard played before his injury, Harden matched up with Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph in the second half and more than held his own.
"Losing Kostas and Terrence puts more emphasis on that," McHale said. "We're going to have all kinds of crazy lineups. We have for the last few weeks. We're going to keep doing it until everybody gets back healthy.
"We just have less people we can throw out there. We still have to play our game. James has to have a big game. D-Mo. Jet. Now that Pat's back, Pat has to anchor us defensively at that spot. Everybody just has to do what they do. They just may be playing some different positions."
That has worked so far, but time could be running out. There have been stretches in which the Rockets have seemed to just be holding on until Harden could get back in the game. The Rockets have found ways to win, but they are not kidding themselves by thinking they don't miss all that's missing.
"James has been playing great," McHale said. "He's a big part of what we do. We run a lot of offense through him. But we miss Dwight a great deal. We miss Terrence a great deal. Everybody brings something unique to a team. It's that blend that makes the team special. Anytime you take some of those guys out, that blend changes. We miss Terrence terribly. We miss Dwight terribly. We miss Canaan, his ability to shoot the ball. Everybody brings something. That's what it means to be a team.
"A lot of guys have really stepped up. It's a players' game. If they don't step up, you don't win."
The Rockets have won enough to keep pace with most of the best of the West, though Harden warned, "We have a long way to go." They have been proud of their record despite injuries and believed they would benefit from the experience young backups have gotten.
Still, they would like to see Howard return to uniform, even if he would have to leave the bow ties at home.
Jonathan Feigen covers the Houston Rockets for the Houston Chronicle and Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @Jonathan_Feigen. Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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