Houston Rockets Redux: Week 17: 02/15/2015

This was a rather abbreviated effort for the Houston Rockets as they had more than a week to rest as all teams transitioned from the first to the second half of the season.

This past week had a lot of excitement against two good basketball teams in the Dallas Mavericks and the Toronto Raptors.

The Rockets ended up splitting the week 1-1 although the game against the Mavs was one that was attainable had they had better control of the basketball and could match up better with their bigs.

We had done it before in the previous two games against them, so I don’t understand as to why the Rockets struggled they way did.

Nonetheless, it was an exciting, abbreviated week for Rockets basketball and I’m still darn proud to call this team my own.

Let’s take a look at how they did:

Feb 20, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward

Chandler Parsons

(25) battles Houston Rockets guard

James Harden

(13) and forward

Trevor Ariza

(1) for a rebound during the game at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Mavericks 111, Rockets 100: This was a game the Rockets had in hand but they let it start to slip away shortly after the 1st quarter. The Rockets would get cold, commit turnovers and the Mavs would capitalize. Although the rebounding margin was quite even for both teams, it was their 21 turnovers that were the key in the loss. The Rockets did make an incredible effort to get back in the game in the 4th quarter, with two key runs — including a 9-0 run — to close within five points but Tyson Chandler and Al-Farouq Aminu were just too much for the Rockets. James Harden led with 26 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Terrence Jones nearly had a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.

Feb 21, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard

Corey Brewer

(33) controls the ball during the second quarter as Toronto Raptors guard

Kyle Lowry

(7) defends at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Rockets 98, Raptors 76: I honestly thought this game would be a lot closer at the end than what I thought it would be because the Raptors are a solid basketball team. But the Rockets defense was stifling and it showed as it was a block party with the team having nine total on the night. Jones and Josh Smith each had three a piece, while Donatas Motiejunas had two and Jason Terry had one. J-Smoove had an incredible block on a Kyle Lowry jump shot with six seconds left in the 1st quarter, it seemed to surprise him as he came out of nowhere and tossed that basketball toward the out-of-bounds markers. Lowry was held to just 11 points off 2-for-13 shooting from the field. Speaking of shooting, the Rockets did quite poorly through most of the 1st half shooting around 36 percent FG and 12 percent from behind-the-arc. They eventually got it together and started to pull away near the end of the third quarter and never looked back after that. K.J. McDaniels and Pablo Prigioni made their debut with 3:48 left in the game as the Rockets were already up by 22 points with the score being 90-68. McDaniels first shot attempt was a three-pointer that was missed. He ended up going 0-for-3 as far as shooting on the night. Prigioni did not record any stats. Corey Brewer was unstoppable last night — he dunked, he swished and he dominated! He finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and five assists off 12-for-19 shooting from the field. The Beard chipped in 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

Houston Rockets Redux: Week 17: 02/15/2015 – 02/21/2015

By Brian K. Patterson | Feb 22, 2015