Mavs Eliminated At Houston
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HOUSTON — There was nothing out of the ordinary about All-Star guard James Harden helping carry the Houston Rockets home on Tuesday night. Rockets forward Terrence Jones, on the other hand, was a revelation.
Harden and Jones combined on a series of backbreaking plays down the stretch as the Rockets closed this Western Conference first-round series with a 103-94 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 at Toyota Center, their first postseason series victory since 2008-09.
With Houston clinging to a 94-89 lead, Harden buried a 3-pointer with 2:38 remaining. After adding a steal on the defensive end, he pushed the ball up court and fed Jones for a dunk that bumped the advantage to 99-91 with 1:09 left. And then, with 51.7 seconds to play, Jones added another transition dunk off a length-of-the-court pass from Harden.
Harden finished with 28 points and eight assists while Jones added 15 points, 10 in the fourth quarter. Rockets center Dwight Howard posted 18 points, 19 rebounds, four blocks and four steals while reserve forward Josh Smith chipped in 20 points and eight boards as Houston took a significant step after last year’s postseason disappointment.
“It means a lot,” Harden said of the series win. “We have a lot of guys banged up. Guys have
been in and out of the lineup but guys competed and battled through it, and that’s what makes this more special.”
The Rockets will face the winner of the San Antonio Spurs-Los Angeles Clippers first round series in the Western Conference semifinals.
Even when the Rockets appeared safe, the Mavericks repeatedly responded. Jones followed his three-point play at the 5:07 mark with a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to boost the lead to 94-85. When Dallas cut the deficit to five points with 3:01 left to play, it required Harden and Jones to work in concert before Dallas finally relented.
The closing surge from Jones was particularly noteworthy given his struggles preceding his three-point play. Jones had just five points on 2-for-6 shooting before suddenly exploding at the most opportune time.
“His corner 3 was huge,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said of Jones. “I tell him to work on the corner 3 all the time, and that left corner 3 by T.J. was a huge shot. He rose up and shot it. T.J. had a great stretch in that fourth quarter that kind of brought us home, which was fantastic.”
Guard Monta Ellis paced Dallas with 25 points and seven assists while forward Dirk Nowitzki added 22 points and 14 rebounds. Forward Al-Farouq Aminu had 14 points and nine boards before fouling out late in the fourth as Dallas dropped its fourth consecutive postseason series.
Some combination of the Rockets’ renewed defensive vigor and the Mavericks awful shooting was the culprit behind Dallas’ demise. Ellis and Nowitzki combined to miss 30 shots while Dallas shot 5-of-26 on 3s.
“I thought we had some good looks at 3(-pointers),” said Nowitzki, who finished 0-for-6 from behind the arc. “We were shooting 38 percent from the floor. It’s going to be tough to win on the opposing floor.”
The combination of the Mavericks’ transition prowess and the Rockets’ ragged ball-handling enabled Dallas to whittle what was a 12-point deficit at 45-33 to three points on Ellis’ 3-point play with 66 seconds remaining in the half. Houston accumulated eight turnovers in the second quarter and 15 in the first half, yielding 17 Dallas points.
Even with Nowitzki shooting just 2-for-11 by the intermission, the Mavericks trailed by only six points at the break, a lead bolstered by a late Harden 3. And despite cleaning things up in the third quarter — Houston turned the ball over just once in the period — the Rockets couldn’t shake Dallas.
It helped that Nowitzki began to warm up in the third. Even after the Rockets built their lead to a game-high 14 points with 5:21 left, Dallas answered with two 3s and trailed by just seven entering the fourth.
“Our fans and our organization are really proud of how we battled, and I certainly am,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s always disappointing when it’s over but we did some good things this year, and we’re proud of our guys.”
