In the big picture, there wasn’t a lot to celebrate about the 2015-16 season for the Houston Rockets. They entered the year with NBA championship aspirations coming off a Western Conference Finals berth, and finished 41-41 with a disappointing No. 8 finish in the West.
But March 14, 2016 was one of the rare exceptions. On that day, the Rockets routed the visiting Memphis Grizzlies, 130-81 (box score), in what was the third-largest margin of victory in franchise history.
Lithuanian big man Donatas Motiejunas scored 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting (50.0%) in just 21 minutes, and he led the team with an astounding +37 in the plus/minus during his abbreviated court time.
Based on the rout, no starter played more than 25 minutes, and all 12 active players on the Houston roster had at least 12 minutes.
The Rockets (34-33) had an incredible nine players with double figures in scoring in that game at Toyota Center, including Motiejunas, Trevor Ariza, James Harden, Patrick Beverley, Michael Beasley, Clint Capela, Andrew Goudelock, Jason Terry, and K.J. McDaniels.
The Grizzlies (39-28) were severely shorthanded that night, with veterans Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Lance Stephenson, and Vince Carter all missing the game due to injury (recap). But during that challenging season, Houston needed all the wins it could get.
The Rockets finished that season as the No. 8 seed in the playoffs at 41-41, just a game back of the Grizzlies (42-40) for the No. 7 spot.
For Motiejunas, it was his fourth and final season in Houston. Now 29 years old, he currently plays for the Shanghai Sharks in China.
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Motiejunas appeared to have left the team at the February 2016 trade deadline, when GM Daryl Morey sent him to the Detroit Pistons for a draft pick. With his contract expiring after the season, the Rockets didn’t want to risk losing Motiejunas for nothing in free agency.
The Pistons, however, voided the trade — saying Motiejunas didn’t pass their physical. That sent him back to Houston, where fortunately the sides were able to move past the attempted transaction.
Though the 2015-16 Rockets lost in five games in the first round of the playoffs, Motiejunas did indirectly play a key role in how that NBA season finished. After slipping on Motiejunas’ sweat in Houston in an April 2016 playoff game, Golden State star Steph Curry missed multiple weeks with a right knee injury. At the time, the Warriors (73-9) were a juggernaut and coming off the winningest regular season in NBA history.
While Curry did return to the playoffs, he was never as efficient or explosive following the injury, and the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers upset the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.
(Editor’s note: With the 2019-20 season on hiatus due to the NBA’s coronavirus-induced shutdown, we’re looking back at key moments throughout Rockets franchise history. We’ll have more reflections coming up, since the league’s stoppage is expected to last at least 30 days.)