Recap
HOUSTON — One week ago, the short-handed Grizzlies rolled into Cleveland and shocked the Eastern Conference-leading Cavaliers, providing a recent example of feistiness for the Houston Rockets to take heed.
Trevor Ariza and Patrick Beverley sparked a 3-point barrage Monday, and the Rockets rolled to the third-largest victory in franchise history, a 130-81 win over Grizzlies at Toyota Center.
With Ariza and Beverley setting the pace by hitting their first six combined 3-point attempts in the opening quarter, the Rockets shot 16-for-33 from behind the arc. Ariza finished with 16 points, one of nine players to score in double figures for the Rockets, who led wire to wire.
The last time the Rockets had nine double-figure scorers was Feb. 16, 1993, against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Rockets center Dwight Howard said of the Grizzlies, “With a team like that, you want to put them away. Cleveland played them the other day (March 7) and started the game kind of slow and they took an L. We didn’t want that to happen to us tonight, especially being on the road as long as we have been (five games) and coming back home and playing.”
Beverley had 10 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals, while Houston forward Donatas Motiejunas added 18 points and six rebounds in his strongest showing since his deadline trade to the Pistons was revoked.
The Rockets (34-33) ran roughshod from the opening tip despite lukewarm starts from James Harden and Howard, who were held without a basket in the opening quarter and finished with 15 and seven points, respectively. Harden added seven rebounds, eight assists and three blocks; Howard supplied a team-high 13 rebounds plus five blocks.
“That’s what I was doing tonight,” Harden said of laboring to create open looks for his teammates. “I really wasn’t trying to score, I was just being a facilitator, trying to do all the intangible things to get the win.”
The Grizzlies trotted out a motley-crew roster and trailed 21-6 less than five minutes into the contest. Matt Barnes keyed a mini 8-0 run with back-to-back 3-pointers, but Houston followed by stretching its lead to 31-16 before building an insurmountable cushion with an 8-0 spurt in the second that included a Jason Terry 3-pointer and Motiejunas’ three-point play.
The bloated margin kept swelling, growing from 18 points to 56-32 when Harden followed an Ariza transition dunk with a 3-pointer and a technical free throw. Memphis didn’t have the bodies or experience to muster a counterattack, surrendering a 15-3 run early in the third capped by a Motiejunas 3-pointer that stretched the Rockets’ advantage to 80-45.
“Half our team is D League,” Barnes said. “It’s just one of those situations where we’ve been bit by the injury bug and nobody is going to feel bad for us. Teams like Houston see that and they want to blow you out, so we have to come and be ready to play every night.”
Memphis, playing without regulars Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and Zach Randolph, trailed by as many as 53 points. Barnes paced the starters with 14 points while adding seven rebounds. Jarell Martin and Alex Stepheson scored 17 and 12 points, respectively, in reserve, with Stepheson grabbing 15 boards. The Grizzlies committed 20 turnovers.
“I was really proud of our guys,” Grizzlies coach David Joerger said. “We got 100 shots up and 62 shots in the paint and did a tremendous job, but it was just one of those nights.”