The Houston Rockets are now 2-0 in the Josh Smith 2.0 era.
Sunday afternoon, they hosted the Dallas Mavericks, the team that is now just one game ahead of them in the Western Conference playoff race, and just as they did with Smith in tow in the first round of last year’s playoffs, the Rockets ran around Dirk Nowitzki, exploded in transition and won handily, 115-104.
The Rockets went up in the first quarter thanks to 16 points from Trevor Ariza, who has caught on fire as of late. It’s the second straight game he opened the game with a torrid shooting stretch, and both games the Rockets needed it, because no one else really got it going.
As Ariza went to the bench and the group of Ty Lawson, Josh Smith and Marcus Thornton came in, it was apparent how little anyone else could give the team early on: the Mavericks went on a 16-2 run early in the second quarter to go from down 36-29 to up 45-38.
The Rockets continued to plod their way through the rest of the first half and the beginning of the second half, finding themselves the victim of basic pick-and-rolls, scrambling to cover wide-open shooters and having trouble dealing with a 7-foot-2 rookie named Salah Mejri. When Mejri got his fourth foul in third quarter, at which point the Mavericks were up 11 points, Houston made its move.
Harden started distributing and attacking, Josh Smith’s backline defense turned up a notch and Corey Brewer started flying in transition. Basically, the 2015 Rockets showed up and blew by the Mavericks in the second half.
J-Smoove looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. His shot wasn’t very good, but, as Kevin McHale said plenty of times last year, as long as he’s taking the right shots and playing confidently, he’s allowed to miss.
When the team started running and gunning and pulling away, the Headband Brothers, plus Ty Lawson and Harden, was the lineup on the floor: Smith at center, Brewer at the 4, Harden at the 3, Terry at the 2 and Lawson running point. Helped by the Mavericks putting Chandler Parsons as their own small-ball 4, this lineup was everything that worked about the Rockets last year, plus a dose of playmaking from Lawson.
Harden finished the game with a triple-double, 23 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals for good measures. Trevor Ariza led all Rockets with 29 points, a season high, on 6-9 from deep plus three steals. J-Smoove finished with 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks and Terrence Jones was a -11 in 10 minutes of action, and did not play in the final 20 minutes of the game.
It’s just been two games, but it’s already clear that Daryl Morey giving up foreign players that will never play in the NBA to bring Josh Smith back was a brilliant move. Terrence Jones could continue to see his minutes dwindle as the season goes on, making him more expendable. Don’t be surprised if Jones is involved in some Morey magic that tends to happen around the trade deadline. Either way, a win against a team ahead of them in the standings, no matter how it comes, is great news for the 24-22 Rockets.