The Rockets took a commanding 2-0 lead over the Mavericks thanks to their bench. That's not their usual approach, but it's all part of their winning formula.
HOUSTON -- This was the game that made no sense. It was the one where people casually tuned in to find Ray Felton and JJ Barea sharing a backcourt alongside a frontline of Al-Farouq Aminu and Charlie Villanueva. (Really!) It was the one where Rajon Rondo was benched 34 seconds into the second half and Josh Smith was the best passing alumnus of Oak Hill Academy. It was the one where the Rockets couldn't shake the injury-depleted Mavericks for three quarters until they finally did so with James Harden on the bench.
Or, in the words of Houston coach Kevin McHale after their 111-99 victory, "It was just a funky game. We couldn't catch our flow. Every time we started catching our flow we couldn't maintain it."
Rick Carlisle's Mavs had a lot to do with that. Playing without the injured Chandler Parsons and Devin Harris, Carlisle was forced to reach deep into his roster and for a long time it worked. Tyson Chandler defended the paint like a mad man, Dirk Nowitzki rebounded like the series depended on it and Monta Ellis drained a 30-foot jumper at the buzzer to make it a one-point game heading into the fourth quarter. The lineups may have been unorthodox but they clicked for reasons known only to the Basketball Gods.
That brings us to Josh Smith, exiled Piston by way of banished Atlantan, who put on a fourth-quarter show reminiscent of his very best days from his not-so-distant past. Over and over again, the Rockets put poor Dirk in the pick-and-roll and time after time Smoove showed off his brilliant passing skills to Dwight Howard for dunk after dunk.
"Those are a problem," Carlisle said. "We've got to study that and do a better job on that. Look, it was pretty obvious in the fourth quarter they jumped over us on a lot of these plays."
The rest of that Houston lineup: Pablo Prigioni, Corey Brewer and Trevor Ariza ran the floor for layups, cut to the basket and defended. The Rockets took command, extended the lead to double digits and that was that.
"Once we got it going in the fourth, it was over," Brewer said. "That's what it's all about. The crowd gets into the game, we play our style of basketball and get a lot of easy baskets."
Ah yes, that gets to the heart of the matter and what the Rockets are all about. To anyone who consumes NBA basketball on a nightly basis, they don't require much explanation. They're the team that shoots threes, layups and free throws, eschewing mid-range jumpers and anything else that might detract from achieving the highest possible Game Score on basketball-reference. They're Daryl Morey's Science Experiment Brought to Life, as evidenced by the giant videoboard that displays Four Factors statistics underneath the usual array of points, rebounds and assists.
To everyone else, which is to say most of the rest of the world, they're impossibly strange. Their All-World shooting guard is really their point guard (kind of) and they have zero use for roster continuity, positions or any other well-worn basketball tropes. While we praise the Hawks, Spurs and Warriors for playing the beautiful team game, the Rockets rode Harden's inexhaustible resourcefulness and an ever-changing cast of role players to the the second seed in the Western Conference and now into a commanding position in their first round playoff series.
There is no third wheel, unless you consider that all of their players outside of Harden and Howard serve that function. Not that Morey didn't try to find that third star. He pursued Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony in the offseason. In the end, he came back with Ariza -- a role players' role player -- plus bargain bin veterans like Jason Terry and a basket full of rookies. He traded for Brewer and Prigioni (for a couple of role players, obviously) and landed Smith after Detroit turned him loose on the waiver wire.
That's the thing about role players: you can always find more of them. The Rockets have cycled through 20 different players on their roster this season. Only five of them are holdovers from last season and two of those guys are injured and out for the season. That leaves Harden and Terrence Jones as the longest-tenured Rockets on the active list at three seasons apiece and Howard and Jones both missed significant chunks of the season with injuries.
The roster makes no sense unless you consider that it was formed specifically with Harden's game in mind, and then it makes perfect sense. That lack of top-end talent around Harden allowed Morey to simultaneously boost his player's MVP's candidacy (just look at these guys!) while also allowing Harden's high-usage game to flourish.
Eleven different players logged 795 minutes or more this season and Ariza was the only player besides Harden to crack the 1,000-point mark. He did so barely, leaving him more than 1,100 behind Harden. The important thing, the part that turns this motley collection into a team, is that everyone understands the dynamic and no one seems to be bothered by it.
"We don't mind when nobody talks about us," Brewer said. "All these guys have been in the league long enough. Me, Jet, Josh, we've all been in the league for a while so it doesn't matter if you talk about us or not. James is great. We want him to be MVP, so we just play off him. We all complement each other. I'm not going to lie, when James is out there he commands so much attention the game is just easy. When we come in and James is on the bench, we pick it up. We all know how to play."
The Rockets have simplified things to such a degree that they're as predictable as the Grizzlies, if not as traditionally orthodox. It's a winning combination mainly because Harden has been so great and the role players know their games so well. What truly elevates them into contender status is when Howard plays like Dwight of old, which he did again on Tuesday with 28 points and 12 rebounds. The Rockets may have been optimistic about his return but they couldn't have been certain they'd see this player this early in the postseason.
"I was hoping," McHale said. "Dwight's been a big-time performer in the playoffs. Last year he was our dominant player in the Portland series. I've told Dwight all along, I'm surprised he's able to be as effective as he is. He's had so many long periods away from basketball. He's worked hard. He's starting to get his bounce back and he's looking good. We played him 33 (minutes) -- that's kind of where we were hoping to get him, in the low 30s. I'll be interested to see how his knee is feeling tomorrow. He's a big part of what we're doing.
"With Dwight rolling hard, protecting the paint, rebounding the ball, it puts a lot of pressure on the other team. If you make a mistake it's a dunk. Having Dwight back for us is huge for us."
Oh, and Rajon Rondo got benched. Carlisle yanked him five minutes into the game and played him all of 10 minutes in the first half. Barely a minute into the second, he picked up two fouls guarding Harden and an ill-advised technical foul that resulted in four Harden free throws. That was the end of his night. His minutes went to Barea and Felton. That's how far he's fallen.
"He got his fourth foul so I took him out," Carlisle said. "I liked the way the other guys were playing so I elected not to put him back in. Coach's decision."
When pressed on Rondo's level of commitment, Carlisle responded: "You can ask him that question. All I know right know is we need everybody at their competitive best. This isn't about one guy who did or didn't play. This is much bigger than that. It's about everybody pulling in the same direction for the organization. That's what it's all about."
Rondo wasn't asked the question because he departed without talking to reporters, which seems like a fitting coda for his time in Dallas. He hasn't been the player they hoped he would be when they acquired him from Boston at the cost of some much-needed depth. That was the risk the Mavericks took, and while Playoff Rondo has turned into a cruel joke, it was a risk that was worth considering. Not all gambles pay off and not all experiments prove successful.
He may surprise us yet again and the Mavericks are a proud bunch with a smart coach. This series is not over, even if it feels that way. That's about the only thing that really, truly made sense on Tuesday.
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