Houston Rockets: Clint Capela Is The Answer

It took 74 games for the Houston Rockets to give Clint Capela his first look at some real NBA minutes. And it only took 19 minutes for Clint Capela to prove to the Houston Rockets that he’s a worthy replacement/second-banana to a damaged and minutes-restricted Dwight Howard and a wildly overrated Joey Dorsey.

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During the 2014-15 season, the Houston Rockets have made quite the unexpected run up the Western Conference standings. And with only seven games left in the regular season, the team finds itself riding the rather prestigious, but equally dangerous third place in the Western Conference.

With a plus-3.2 point differential, good enough for seventh-best in the NBA, and an injury-depleted starting lineup, the Houston Rockets owe most of their success to James Harden’s offensive and defensive explosion into MVP-caliber play.

But enough of James Harden.

Throughout the season, unlikely role players such as Trevor Ariza, Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas have stepped up for a Houston Rockets team that’s yet to be healthy for an entire week of the season.

Rockets’ injuries included three starters who have missed 106  games, so far — Dwight Howard, 39 games (back on a minutes-restriction basis); Patrick Beverley, 18 games (out for the season with a torn ligament in his wrist); Terrence Jones, 49 games (back on no minutes restriction, thank God).

As of today, we should add Clint Capela to the previous list. Up until monday, Clint Capela was yet to reach the seven-minute mark in any of his six games of the 2014-15 season. However, once he got the chance to prove himself, he did.

Without Dwight Howard on the court — he seems to be healthy but he won’t be playing on any of the team’s remaining back-to-backs until further notice — Clint Capela took over Joey Dorsey off the bench and delivered. Kind of.

Even though he had an overall plus/minus of minus-5, Clint Capela outperformed Dorsey in shooting percentage, points, blocks and rebounds. During Capela’s 19.2 minutes on the court, the Toronto Raptors grabbed only 42.5, whereas when he was on the bench that number rose almost by 10 to 51.7.

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With former All-Star center Dwight Howard back on a minutes-restriction which should hopefully get him close to 100 percent once the playoffs finally get here, the Houston Rockets don’t have to rush things with Capela nor Dorsey.

And even though Clint Capela won’t make or break the Houston Rockets’ title pursuit, he has proven the Rockets that when it comes to taking over Dwight Howard’s bench minutes come playoff time, he’s an even better version of Joey Dorsey.

The Houston Rockets still need to think about the seeding rather than on

bringing

rushing back the bunch of guys they lost throughout the course of the season.

With five of their last seven games coming against Western teams better than .500 — Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs (x2) and New Orleans Pelicans — they should focus on getting a seed that’ll end up in a favorable first-round matchup.

During Wednesday’s game against the Sacramento Kings, James Harden exploded for a career-high 51 points, and a plus-10 plus/minus. The second highest Rocket plus/minus? Clint Capela’s.

*slow clap*

Next: Houston Rockets: Second Seed Is Key

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