‘Real Jabari’ shining through as rookie’s confidence grows
With the Rockets leading the Celtics by one and just 8.7 seconds left, Jabari Smith Jr. wanted the ball.
The inbounds play had him setting a screen for Kevin Porter Jr. rushing into the frontcourt, with Jalen Green heading the other way to the backcourt. But when the Celtics switched, Smith broke free and moved toward Frank Kaminsky III, wanting the ball and the game in his hands. A foul sent Smith to the line, where he made one of two free throws to put the Rockets up 111-109, which proved the final score.
Smith, enjoying a sudden surge in scoring, had similarly called for the ball and nailed the turnaround 3-pointer that sent last week’s game at Indiana to overtime. He spent Monday’s game not only knocking down his first five 3pointers but also taking on one of the toughest defensive assignments in the league, Celtics star Jayson Tatum.
From the same rise in Jabari’s confidence comes the aggressiveness to step up in game-deciding moments, to seek the most difficult defensive assignments and, most of all, to want the responsibility and role that come with his place as the third player taken in the NBA draft and one of the core pieces of the Rockets’ rebuild.
“He’s been very confident when he has the ball in his hands,” coach Stephen Silas said. “He has taken every opportunity that has arisen for him. But the thing I like most is what he’s trying to do on defense. He’s given a good effort on the defensive end and letting his offense come to him.”
Little could be more important or valuable to the Rockets in the final month of their season. Smith’s sudden arrival has been a revelation, not unlike when Green took off in the final month of last season to give the Rockets much-needed hope.
“He’s going crazy right now,” Green said. “He’s in that mode. I’m happy for him because we know the real Jabari, and he’s showing it right now to everybody — everyone who doubted him, the haters, everyone.”
Green has referred to the “real Jabari” several times in the past week, a reference to the vast dichotomy between the way he was playing and the way he has played in the past six games.
After pairing 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting with 12 rebounds Monday, Smith has scored at least 20 in three consecutive games for the first time this season. He became the first teenager in NBA history with three consecutive 20-point games with double-digit rebounds and, almost two months shy of his 20th birthday, the youngest player ever with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five 3-pointers in a game.
Smith has a six-game streak of double-figure scoring, his first since the first six games of the season. After making one of 16 3s in a four-game stretch, Smith has made 58.6 percent of his shots and 53.6 percent of his 3s in the past six games.
“You want to see your rooks learn and grow and improve throughout the season,” Porter said. “Jabari’s season has definitely been that. He started figuring it out. Had a great run, a great stretch and then had a rookie wall and then had his All-Star break. Now you see him settling into his own game. You see him shooting the 3 with a lot more confidence, his turnaround, his mid game, everything. The defensive end, he’s shown he’s improved that.
“I’m proud of him. He’s going to keep getting better.”
The Rockets always knew Smith would need time. Even when he was expected to be the first player taken in the draft, there was an understanding that he was less of a ready-made prospect than the other top players in the draft. But it was easy to see a smooth shooting stroke that let him knock down 42 percent of his 3s as an Auburn freshman, as well as defensive agility uncommon in a 6-10 athlete with a 7-1 wingspan.
They did not expect him to struggle with his shot the way he did. Before his recent six-game run, he had made 29.1 percent of his 3s. But while showing few signs that he would go from unable to make any shots — he was 1-of-16 on 3s in the four games before the turnaround — to rarely missing any, he was improving defensively.
He increasingly shed a tendency to move alongside ball handlers, seeking to stop them instead. Though Tatum got to the rim for the last shot Monday, it was with Smith determined to take away a 3-pointer that could have won the game. Through most of the game, he forced the Celtics star to shoot over him. In two games against the Rockets, Tatum has made one of nine 3-pointers when Smith was defending him.
“With guys like that, it’s a hard job, and I don’t know if you ever really figure it out,” Silas said. “(You’re) paying attention to tendencies, making it hard on them, making it to where they feel you, making it to where he’s using his quickness and his length. Especially on that last play … Jabari was right with him and contested it at the rim. Jabari has the will to be a good defender but also the tools.”
On the other end, Smith played center in the absence of Alperen Sengun, who was out with a groin strain. Smith did not play center at Auburn, where Jazz rookie Walker Kessler manned the position, but Smith expects to grow into that role.
“As I get stronger, I feel like that’s where my advantage will be. That’s where I’ll be the biggest mismatch for other fives in the league. As I get stronger and just keep learning that position, I feel I can play that.”
That also allows him to play more minutes with fellow rookie Tari Eason. They opened Monday’s game together with Sengun out, and Houston’s starters posted a net rating of plus 22.5 on the strength of a defensive rating of just 95 points allowed per 100 possessions.
Much of that comes from a mindset in which the rookies, for all the struggles that have filled the season, want to be tested defensively.
“It’s great. That’s the way he (Smith) is. Tari is the same way,” Silas said. “Tari always wants to guard the best guy. They’re kind of fighting for who’s going to guard the guy.
“That’s stuff you can’t teach. You can teach technique. You can teach where to be and when to be there. But the competitive part of wanting to be challenged on a nightly basis, especially when you’re a rookie, is good for now,and good for the future.”
jonathan.feigen @houstonchronicle.com twitter.com/jonathan_feigen