Rockets cruise to easy win over Mavs in home opener

Posted: October 21, 2017 -- 11:15 pm CST.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets are a very good team striving to be a championship team this season. The Dallas Mavericks are not a good team. The Mavericks are hoping to be an average team this season. Saturday night, the Rockets defeated the Mavs 107-91; and, the game was definitely not as close as the final score indicates. The Rockets led 92-58 after three quarters.

Ninety-two to Fifty-eight. Thirty-four point lead. The largest lead was 36 points (92-56).

With the win tonight, the Rockets improve to 3-0 this season.  It is the 11th time Houston has started a season 3-0, with the last time being a 6-0 start in 2014-15.  The Mavericks start the season 0-3 after going 0-5 to start 2016-17.

The fourth quarter was extended garbage time; and, the fact the Rockets' reserves were outscored 33-15 in the final 12 minutes displeases Rockets' Head Coach Mike D'Antoni. But, make not mistake, the better team won tonight. No doubt about it.

"They were on a back-to-back, so they probably had some dead legs," said a very diplomatic Mike D'Antoni. "Early in the season when you’re on a back-to-back, I said like we were in Sacramento, you have dead legs and it’s tough to shoot the ball well. But, I thought in the same part, same time we defended pretty well, so really really pleased with our play early, and not so much late. Pretty normal."

"I’m not going to make any excuses, it’s a hard schedule for everybody and I’d like to see us play better in the first half," said Rick Carlisle, Mavs Head Coach. "I loved the way we played in the fourth; but, I’m not going to make excuses as everybody has to play and gets banged up and everybody has things that happened personally and guys miss games. We just have to keep slugging.”

James Harden scored a game-high 29 points in just 31 minutes. Harden did not play in the fourth quarter.

Dallas' future Hall-of-Famer, Dirk Nowitzki, scored 2 points in 18 minutes.

"It appeared as though it was a tough one for him," Coach Carlisle said of Dirk's performance. "Look, it’s three (games) in four nights to start the season and this was a tough back-to-back against a very good defensive team, very athletic and physically tough team. It was hard on everybody, we all have to slug through this. It’s just the way it is."

The Rockets led 33-20 after the first quarter. Harden scored 12 in the first quarter. (He played all 12 minutes.)

The Rockets' lead ballooned to 25 in the second quarter. The Rockets led 62-39 at halftime; and, any hint of hope the Mavs had to comeback was crushed with a 30-19 tidal wave in the third quarter.

"We did a good job. I think our mindset is getting better no matter who we play," said James Harden after the game. "From the beginning of the game we were locked in, and offensively we made shots. And that’s going to be our blueprint, defensive stops."

The Rockets held Dallas without a single fast break point tonight after limiting Sacramento to 6 fast break points on 10/18 after giving up 36 to Golden State in the season opener.  Houston ranked 22nd in the league in fast break points allowed last season (opponents 14.3 per game).

Nenê had 14 points in 10 minutes of play while shooting 6-of-6 from the floor.  Dating back to 1983-84, it is just the third time a player has scored at least 14 points in 10 or fewer minutes of play without missing a single shot (LaSalle Thompson w/14 points in 7 minutes played for Indiana vs. Charlotte on 3/19/93 and Stewart Granger with 16 points in 10 minutes of play for Cleveland at Dallas on 3/7/84).

Clint Capela recorded his second straight double-double with 13 points and a game-high tying 10 rebounds.  Capela did not record his second double-double until nine games into 2016-17.  Capela is averaging 15.7 ppg and 10.3 rpg in 22.5 mpg this season while shooting 70.0% from the floor.

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