The Rockets Handle Mavericks With Ease Without Harden

Photo Credit – NBA

The Rockets handle the Dallas Mavericks with ease in a 105 to 82 victory at the American Airlines Arena. Taking their overall wins total to 94 victories over the Mavs. In a game that saw Dirk Nowitzki drain his 1,900 career three-pointer at the 10:34 in the third quarter and Chris Paul pick up his 417 career double-double.

After the game, Mike D’Antoni was asked was he happy with the bounce back from Friday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors. ” Yes, they are good, and you don’t have to tell them much. They know what’s at stake and they know you have to win games like this. They Just got it done.”

He was also asked about how important Chris Paul’s leadership is with James Harden being out. “It just makes it that much more key that he has a good game, but you don’t have ever to doubt that he will. He was hitting his threes tonight and taking his threes. He orchestrated a great game, but he has done that for about 15 years.

Also after the game our correspondent, Landon Buford had the opportunity to catch up with 13-year veteran Trevor Ariza. Where he was asked about the difference between Kobe Bryant and James Harden’s Leadership “They are two different people and different type of players.”

He was also able to catch up with Joe Johnson who compared being on the Rockets to his time with the Phoenix Suns. ” Probably this is the deepest team that I have ever been a part of a lot of veteran guys on this team. So, that helps out tremendously and they enjoy being around one another and that is a key.” He would follow the follow-up question of how playing with Mike D’ Antoni is different the second time around in comparison to his time in Phoenix. ” I do not think it is necessarily different, but you have veteran players. Nash was a pick and roll type of guy that could score 30, but rather dish it off, and I think with James he could do both. He is capable of putting up 50 points and dish out 17 assists and having Cp3 running point is tough for opponents to handle.”

Mavericks’ coach Rick Carlisle was asked what happened going into the second half. ” We had a couple of missed cues and a couple miss shots. They made two or three consecutive three-pointers. They are dynamic. The 3-ball is thrown in from everywhere. We had a nice run and some energy guys that were giving us some juice. Collinsworth was particularly good during that stretch. They answered back and the Chris Paul play at the end of the half was a killer. It would have been great to go into the third quarter with a halftime lead. But the first shooting. But look, they are a great team, even without Harden. They did what they had to do and we just couldn’t make enough shots. And when it counted, we couldn’t get stops.”

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Tags: Chris Paul, Dallas, Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, Houston, Houston Rockets, James Harden, Mike D'Antoni, NBA, Rick Carlisle, The Hype Magazine, Toronto Raptors, Trevor Ariza

About the Author

Landon Buford Washington State Graduate Past Interviews include Grammy Award Winner Kenny G, David Banner, WNBA President Lisa Borders, What's Trending's CEO Shira Lazar, Ice Cube, NBC's Chicago PD LaRoyce Hawkins, Family Matters Darius McCrary, En Vogues Maxine Jones, Team USA Track & Field Member Norris Frederick, James Kyson, WNBA Great Lauren Jackson, and more.