Perhaps it is just part of the up-and-down, good-with-the-bad season or merely the life of a .500 team. But as Rockets coach Stephen Silas considered another strong offensive game for his bench, he could not help but think of how it was needed because of the relative struggles of the starters.
A tough home loss, such as Saturday’s to the Spurs, will do that. But the Rockets’ depth not only might have been key to getting through the injuries and other absences to be .500 after 22 games, it could be essential in navigating a crammed schedule this month.
Four days after last week’s back-to-back, the Rockets begin Monday in Charlotte before returning to New Orleans on Tuesday. Getting production from the entire rotation could be needed as much as ever. It also might be a way to make up for what the starters have been missing with center Christian Wood out and guard Victor Oladipo struggling.
“Without Christian in the starting lineup, we’re going to have to figure out ways to score,” Silas said. “For those guys to step up off the bench was huge.”
It also was not unusual. Saturday’s was the second game in the past four in which the second unit topped 50 points.
With sixth man Eric Gordon averaging 18.4 points per game (15.6 off the bench), his most in his five seasons with Houston, the Rockets’ reserves average 37.4 points per game, ranking 12th in the league. Last season, the Rockets were 28th in scoring off the bench.
Gordon excelled Saturday in his return to the sixth-man role the Rockets had planned for him this season, scoring 26 points on 8 of 13 shooting. He has scored at least 20 points in his past four games, averaging 23.3 points on 53.4 percent shooting in that stretch, which includes two starts. But his ability to fill either role and to play 36 minutes off the bench Saturday, which demands particularly long stretches on the floor, can solidify the second unit.
“I have the ball a whole lot more than I have since I’ve been here,” Gordon said. “I’m able to play-make more, come off screens, just get the ball in various ways. That’s what allows me to have a lot more opportunities.
“I just come in, try to create a spark, play within the flow of the game. I try to be aggressive, also try to get people involved as much as possible. I just try to create the right opportunities.”
Gordon has played much more point guard than in recent seasons, when either Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook ran the offense with the second unit. With Danuel House Jr. back from three weeks lost to back spasms and a quarantine and David Nwaba returning after three games out with a sprained ankle, Silas can continue to play defenders, as he prefers, while putting shooters around Gordon with that group.
“The depth is a huge advantage of ours,” Silas said. “To have a player like Eric Gordon coming in off the bench — most teams in the league would love that. That’s a luxury for us. He can start. He can come off the bench.
“David Nwaba with his energy on both ends of the floor, his ability to attack the rim, he’s starting to make his 3s, which is really helpful for us. And Danuel House coming off the bench and doing a little bit of everything. And then we have Sterling Brown as well. He can defend and make plays on the offensive end.”
In the past 10 games, even with at least one starter out in half of them to move a player off the second unit, the bench has averaged 42.4 points per game, fourth in the NBA, while making 39.1 percent of its 3-pointers. The Rockets’ starters in that stretch have made 35.6 percent of their attempts from the 3-point line to rank 24th.
“Every game, our second unit, we come in, we score, try to create a spark,” Gordon said. “We always bring a lot to the table.”
They have brought enough that Silas typically will finish games with players who did not start them. Gordon typically is in his closing group. House played down the stretch Saturday after the Spurs went to a small lineup.
“It’s going to be a game-by-game basis,” Silas said of his closing lineups. “I’d much rather have so many options than not enough options. It does make it tough. It’s a decision down the stretch. It’s not an easy one, but I’d much rather have that than looking down toward the ends of the bench and not knowing who to put in because we don’t have anybody.”
Instead, he has enough that shooters Ben McLemore and Mason Jones have fallen out of the rotation, even as Silas has kept his starters’ minutes in the low 30s. Having more players he can use has been a temporary, if welcome, condition, along with the hope that strengths will outnumber or overcome shortcomings.
“We’re pleasantly deep,” Silas said. “And we’re going to need to be deep going forward, especially without Christian.”
jonathan.feigen@chron.com
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