Beverley keeps glass clean

In a game filled with All-Stars James Harden and DeAndre Jordan, former All-Stars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, and Sixth Man award winners Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford, Clippers coach Doc Rivers declared Rockets guard Pat Beverley the best player on the court Wednesday.

It was difficult to argue. Not only had Beverley grabbed 12 rebounds, the second time in four games he matched his career high, he seemed to demoralize the Clippers as much as he lifted his team in a 122-103 win.

“For the other team, especially the offensive rebound, they guard us well, we miss a shot, Pat gets us an extra shot; we don’t need too many extra shots,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “When he does, it’s deflating. He kicks it out. If we hit a 3 on top of that, it’s really deflating. Pat was huge. His defense. His rebounding. And he hit some 3s.”

Beverley, who grabbed four of his rebounds off the offensive boards, had 14 points, making four of eight 3-pointers. The Rockets outscored the Clippers by 32 points in his 32 minutes on the floor.

“I thought Patrick Beverley was by far the best player on either team,” Rivers said. “I just thought his effort, his energy, his toughness — I thought it just spilled over to the entire team. I thought they played harder. They were the tougher team tonight. They were the more physical team tonight. The killed us on the glass. They made the extra effort.”

Beverley, however, said his rebounding comes from the work of others to prevent Griffin and Jordan, who combined for 13 rebounds, from dominating the glass.

“You got to give our big men credit, Clint (Capela) and Ryan (Anderson) and all those guys,” Beverley said. “They’re battling with Blake and DeAndre, keeping them off the boards. I just come in and scoop it up.”

Big turnaround in rebounding

While others talk about the Rockets’ scoring, for two days since the loss to the Pacers, they heard about their defense.

The waves of 3-pointers might be one of the storylines the NBA season. The Rockets, however, spoke of rebounding.

When the Rockets bombed the Clippers on Wednesday, their 3-point shooting — with 20 before the end of the third quarter — naturally dominated conversation. But the Rockets were far more impressed with outrebounding the Clippers 62-36 in a complete turnaround from two games in which they were outrebounded 113-70.

“It’s big for us,” forward Ryan Anderson said. “(Tuesday’s) practice was talking a whole lot about our defensive rebounding numbers, especially. Just focus on getting stops and eliminating second-chance points. That’s where we struggled the past few games. If we can do that, get one stop (per possession), we’ll be great.”

Coach Mike D’Antoni said the game was among the best of the season because “they didn’t miss many assignments defensively. They knew when to switch … and boxing people out. Getting rebounds has been our sore spot. We did a good job on the boards.”

That will likely lead to the next conversation about doing it again.

“We have to do it consistently now, every single game,” James Harden said. “That’s our mindset. If we do that, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”