Defense earns Clark more minutes
Rockets rookie Gary Clark played a seasonhigh 32 minutes on Sunday as his playing time increased with Carmelo
Anthony out with an illness and Gerald Green with a sprained ankle. But Clark’s increasing role also could be a large part of the Rockets’ evaluations of where Anthony fits.
The Rockets have praised Clark’s defense throughout the season while seeing potential for his 3-point shooting to be an asset. He had a seasonhigh eight rebounds to lead the Rockets in Sunday’s victory over the Pacers and has averaged 5.4 rebounds in the past five games after getting just eight in his first six games combined.
“Gary Clark’s a player,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He’s a player. His defense, his rebounding, smart, right position, shoots the ball, I mean, he’s a player.”
Clark has been especially effective as a help defender, with the Rockets’ defense ranking third in the NBA in the past five games, since Clark has played 21 minutes or more per game.
Most of that time has been as a small forward, but the rookie from Cincinnati could be increasingly used at the backup power forward spot Anthony had played.
“It’s a little different, more physical of course,” Clark said. “A lot of times, I’m not so much banging. It’ll probably take a game or two to get adjusted to guarding bigger guys more often. Tuck ( P.J. Tucker) and those guys talk me through just about everything, so I’ll take it game by game.”
Of D’Antoni’s praise, Clark said, “It’s all cool. That’s what I do. I’m a player.
“People say it’s ugly. People have a lot of questions, why is this kid on the court and so forth. But when it comes down to winning, I do the things that a team needs. I don’t always score. I won’t ever complain about scoring or shots. But you’ll see me getting steals, rebounds, blocking shots, getting other guys opportunity to score. All I’m about is winning.”
Offense soars for a while
The Rockets had by far their best offensive stretch of the season in Sunday’s first half.
But just as they said they were happy with the shots they were getting when they scored 80 points in Oklahoma City and 85 in San Antonio, they said the shots were the same after they scored 76 in the first half on Sunday.
“For sure,” Rockets guard James Harden, who had a season high 40 points on Sunday, said. “I don’t know if it’s just guys getting comfortable shooting their shot, some of the newer guys, or whether it’s a rhythm. Whether it’s
Eric (Gordon) getting back or myself, but just as long as we continue to shoot and have that confidence, they’ll fall, they’ll start falling.”
The Rockets, however, went cold in the fourth quarter, making a seasonlow 18.8 percent of their attempts.
But Harden had nine fourth-quarter points to seal the 115-103 win. He went from making 1 of 13 3-pointers in Saturday’s loss to the Spurs to 8 of 18 on Sunday and said he planned to take the same shots.
“I shot a lot of them (Saturday) night,” Harden said. “They were all bricks. I’m going to keep shooting them. I work on them every single day. I’ll continue to shoot it as long as I’m playing basketball.”