Rockets aim to ignite from start vs. Nets

HOUSTON -- The virus of complacency invaded the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, with their recent run of dominant play yielding a casual approach to a short-handed opponent that often fells excellent teams believing that a switch can be flipped when the mood or moment strikes.

The Rockets (15-4) found that gear against the New York Knicks at Toyota Center, but only after sleepwalking through the opening half of the first quarter and falling into a 22-point hole.

Houston clawed its way out with relative ease, leading by as many as 23 points en route to a 15-point victory, but the danger was clear. The Rockets are good enough to coast against middling or poor teams with relatively few consequences aside from the optics of inconsistent effort.

"For a while I didn't know who the turkeys were; I thought it was us," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said, offering a timely Thanksgiving analogy. "It's going to happen. It wasn't pretty, but the flip side is the second quarter we allowed 22 points, third quarter 13 points. So, they got the job done.

"Psychologically sometimes when they're missing players like (Kristaps) Porzingis and (Enes) Kanter, you come out not quite ready to roll. And they got guys that can really score, and we tried to let them off the hook a little bit."

With the Brooklyn Nets (7-12) paying a visit to Toyota Center on Monday night, the Rockets again could face the challenge of mustering intensity against an inferior foe.

Houston has performed like a juggernaut this month, winning 10 of 11 games while averaging 120.3 points and outscoring its opponents by 16.6 points per game. The Rockets' already potent offense was bolstered by the return of All-NBA guard Chris Paul while the defense continues to improve.

The Rockets producing a 117.9 offensive rating this month isn't surprising; their 17.5 net rating reflects defensive might, something showcased after the Knicks scored 29 points over the first 7 1/2 minutes only to fail to reach that mark in any of the ensuing three quarters of action.

"Whenever a team has a lead, we don't really focus on the lead that they have. We really just focus on what we're doing," Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said. "That's what we did. We didn't focus on what the score was, we just got back to doing what we do on both ends of the court."

The Nets snapped a three-game skid with a 98-88 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night, marking the first time in seven games that Brooklyn held an opponent under 100 points.

Brooklyn opened a three-game road swing against Western Conference opponents facing roster attrition, playing without guard Allen Crabbe (sore lower back) and then losing forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (right ankle sprain) against the Grizzlies. The Nets overcame those issues and Memphis' slowed pace, cranked up the defense and pulled away in the second half.

The high-scoring Rockets will offer an altogether different challenge, of course. Brooklyn is well aware of what lies ahead and is committed to the discipline required to topple Houston.

"A lot of time when you play against teams like that, it's easy to get baited into fool's gold sort of shots where you think it might be a good shot but (it's) not necessarily a great shot," said Nets guard Joe Harris, who filled in for Crabbe. "We've got to continue to keep executing, give up the good shots for great shots, and we'll be all right."