Houston Rockets Have Found the Right Help for James Harden in the Playoffs
When the Houston Rockets played the Utah Jazz on March 12, James Harden had one of his worst games of the year, and the Jazz thrashed the Rockets, 109-91. It was a continuation of Harden’s recent three-game slump.
If you look beyond the beating, though, there’s one encouraging piece of news: Harden had help. Corey Brewer scored 25. Terrence Jones had a double-double with 11 points and 11 boards. It’s one of many recent indicators that while the Rockets are clearly Harden’s team and he is their most valuable player, he’s not their only valuable player.
On the season, the Rockets are 401 points better with Harden on the court than when he’s on the bench. In the last four games, they’re only eight points better. Other guys are stepping up, bearing some of the load.
Most of that is on the fact that the rest of the team, which has been steadily built around Harden through the course of the season, is finally getting healthy and coming together. The Rockets look like they’re going to be peaking right when they head into the playoffs.
That’s important because last year's team was overreliant on Harden. When the playoffs came, the extra defensive attention caused him to struggle. His true shooting percentage dropped from 61.8 in the regular season to 51.9 in the playoffs.
Then the Rockets lost Chandler Parsons, their second-best shot-creator, when he bolted for the Dallas Mavericks in free agency. They were able to replace him with Trevor Ariza, a superior defender with less offensive ability.
The Rockets also traded away Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik in the hopes of landing another superstar, which didn’t pan out. When they entered the season, they had almost no offensive help for Harden. It was easy to see why there were skeptics.
Fast forward to March 15.
Houston is 44-22, the same record it had at this point last year in spite of a plethora of injuries. That includes knee issues for Dwight Howard, which have cost him 33 games. That's an impressive accomplishment.
That’s because general manager Daryl Morey kept working. When you look at the moves in their totality, the Rockets quietly upgraded over the 2013-14 team. They subtly and indirectly swapped Parsons, Lin and Asik for Ariza, Jason Terry, Josh Smith and Corey Brewer—a more than even exchange.
Factor in the improvement from power forwards Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones, and it’s little wonder the Rockets are playing at the same level in spite of missing their second-best player for more than half the season.
And that could be the difference between this postseason and last: Surprisingly, this year’s version of the Rockets is able to take more pressure off Harden when the games really matter because it can score in a variety of ways.
It’s not the names that have been added. It’s the diversity of the players and the ways they can score. Brewer is a fast-break machine, second in points per play (1.28) among players with 200 points in transition, according to NBA.com. Ariza, at 1.17, isn’t far behind.
What if the transition isn't working, though, and the Rockets need to rely on their half-court offense? They can beat you going deep. They have an NBA-record pace, 11.5 three-point makes per game to rely on. There are six Rockets making at least one trey per game: Harden (2.5), Ariza (2.3), Patrick Beverley, (2.1), Terry (1.6), Brewer (1.3) and Smith (1.0).
And when the three isn’t falling, they have players who can score inside. Against the Los Angeles Clippers on March 15, they were just 7-of-30 from deep, but they outscored their opponent by a margin of 44-32 in the paint.
In that game, it came in the form of Terrence Jones, who is averaging 1.41 points as the roll man in the pick-and-roll, putting him ninth league-wide. Dwight Howard, with an average of 1.29, is 11th.
And while Donatas Motiejunas was held in check, he is one of the top post-up men in the NBA. He has 233 points at .98 points per play, good for fifth-best among players with at least 100 points.
Need someone else who can penetrate and create for himself and others? Josh Smith, with 4.7 drives per game, is second among power forwards to Paul Millsap and creates 4.4 points per game off drives compared to Millsap’s 4.2.
And on the other end, the Rockets have improved to the point of being the NBA’s third-best defense, yielding 99.9 points per 100 possessions. Last year’s squad was just 13th.
And all of this is mostly without Dwight Howard. When he’s been on the court, the Rockets’ offensive rating is 104.3, and their defensive rating is a paltry 97.4. And he’s barely played with Jones (88 minutes), Brewer (188) or Smith (207).
There is no return date set, but Howard could be back in two weeks. Per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, that’s a timeline set by Howard. If he is back for the game on March 29 at the Washington Wizards, that would give him 10 games to get back into game shape and learn his new teammates.
The Rockets might not have a top-10 offense right now, but a healthy Houston team would have a top-10-caliber offense. And with one of the top two or three defenses as well, that makes this team a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs.
Most importantly, it won’t be one that is forced to rely only on the production of Harden. He’ll still be the key, but he won’t have to carry the team alone. He has enough help.
Advanced stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com.
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