The Houston Rockets get a lot of offensive production from James Harden and Russell Westbrook, but on Friday night, they received a big game from an unlikely source in a 118-108 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Along with Harden’s usual brilliance of 44 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists and Westbrook’s 20 points, the Rockets received 30 points and 14 rebounds from Clint Capela. Entering Friday night, Capela was averaging 13.9 points on the season so his performance was surprising, to say the least.
“Obviously, he’s one of the fastest running bigs that we have in this league,” said Harden. “So, it was an opportunity for him to score and an opportunity for our team to get points and put pressure on the defense. He did an unbelievable job of running.”
While Sixers big man Joel Embiid had 20 points and 11 rebounds of his own, he was not able to beat Capela up the floor and it allowed him to get a lot of easy buckets in transition. While Embiid was scoring his buckets in the post and was using his brute strength to get it done, Capela was able to sue his speed.
“He (did) a good job (of) running the floor (on) both sides, defended the rim,” Westbrook added on Capela. “Ran the floor like he was supposed to, did a good job.”
Capela’s success was partly due to the brilliance of Harden who was able to get into the paint, draw the usual attention he receives, and find Capela for lobs. That type of play really hurt the Sixers all night long.
“He was Clint,” added Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni. “This might be his best game in a long time, I’m sure he’s had better. He played really well against a really good player. That was instrumental on what we did tonight, because they like to stay home with outside guys – their shooters, so it’s James and Clint at the rim, and James is finding him all over the place.”
The Sixers, on the other hand, will now try to put an end to this frustrating four-game losing skid when they return home on Monday to take on the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder.