Isaiah Hartenstein has career night in blowout victory by Rockets

In his second career start, Isaiah Hartenstein blocked a career-high 5 shots. He also had 17 points and 15 rebounds in a big Houston win.

In just the second start of his young career, Rockets center Isaiah Hartenstein had 17 points, 15 rebounds, and a career-high five blocks Saturday in a 139-109 win (box score) over visiting Minnesota in Houston.

Including the 2018 NBA playoffs, the Rockets (26-12) have now defeated the Timberwolves (15-23) in 16 consecutive games at Toyota Center.

Hartenstein started in place of Clint Capela, who missed his third game in a span of two weeks due to a nagging right heel contusion that still hasn’t gone away. The 21-year-old seven-footer averaged 14 points (72.2% shooting), 11 rebounds, and one block in 29.3 minutes in the two prior Capela absences in late December, and he improved upon that Saturday.

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Hartenstein made 8-of-9 shots (88.8%) against Minnesota, and the Rockets were an astounding +39 as a team in his 27 minutes.

“He knows how to play and he’s got energy,” head coach Mike D’Antoni said of Hartenstein. “He can really get James going free with pick-and-rolls early in the half court. … There’s a lot of things with Isaiah that are hard to teach it, hard to coach it, he just does it.”

Rockets superstar James Harden, who led the Rockets with 32 points in a historic personal game, echoed D’Antoni’s assessment.

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Regarding Hartenstein, Harden said:

He works his butt off every single day. In the weight room, he’s one of the first people here in the gym working on his shot, working on his floater. … He’s been very patient, worked his butt off, and the corner has turned for him.

Backcourt co-star Russell Westbrook was similarly complimentary of Hartenstein’s emergence in recent weeks.

Westbrook said of Hartenstein:

He’s doing a great job of playing hard. If he plays hard, everything else will take care of itself. At his age, his youth, the only thing he should be worried about is playing hard, and he’s doing that at a very high level right now.

According to Hartenstein, nothing has changed dramatically with his game from several weeks ago — when he was frequently sent to Houston’s G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and wasn’t regularly a part of D’Antoni’s rotation with the parent club.

As the second-round pick from the 2017 NBA Draft sees it, the heel injury to Capela presented him with an opportunity that simply wasn’t there before. And he’s fully taking advantage of it.

In his postgame comments, Hartenstein said:

That’s why I’m in the gym as much as I am. Just watching film, being in the gym, and waiting for my opportunities. It wasn’t that I couldn’t play, but it was more situation the way it was. I think I took the best of my opportunities.

The Rockets (26-12), who have now won four of their last five games, return to action next Tuesday night at Memphis (17-22). It’s unclear whether Capela will be back for that game — but either way, Hartenstein has deservedly carved out minutes for the foreseeable future.

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