HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- With 2:25 left on the Toyota Center clock on Thursday night, Damian Lillard pulled up from just inside the three-point line trying to stretch a one-point Blazers lead to three. Lillard’s shot missed, leading to a battle for the rebound down low between P.J. Tucker and Enes Kanter.
Tucker didn’t come away with the rebound, but more important, neither did Kanter, instead, the under-sized Tucker boxed out the massive Kanter, and deflected the ball to John Wall, who grabbed it and sprinted to the other basket where drew a foul and drained a pair of free throws, giving the Rockets a lead they’d never relinquish, on the way to a 104-101 win.
According to the box score, Tucker’s two-point, six-rebound night was subpar for a guy playing 31 minutes, but if you’re doing it wrong if you're using the box score to judge his impact on a game.
“P.J. may not show up in the stat sheets, but all of the stuff he does and communicating on the defensive end and taking that challenge, that’s a guy you want to have on your team,” Rockets guard John Wall said after Tucker finished with five points and three rebounds in a win over the Pelicans on Saturday.
If you look at the stats, Tucker is having his worst season since returning to the NBA eight years ago. His numbers are down across the board but Rockets head coach Stephen Silas says his impact goes beyond the numbers.
“First of all, he’s an ultimate professional,” Silas said before Saturday’s game. “He’ll do whatever it takes to win. (He’s) a leader on this team that everybody listens to.”
During his time with the Rockets, Tucker has been type-cast as a terrific defender with a propensity for knocking down the corner three, but Silas insists he is much more than that.
“He has a knack for creating action for others and making it to where others can play really well while he's on the floor. He spaces well to the corners and makes it hard on his man, as far as help situations, is he going to go help or is he going to stay attached to P.J. for the corner three.”
Through the first 18 games of the season, Tucker has scored in double digits in the same number of games he’s registered a zero in the points column (four games), but that doesn’t matter according to Wall.
“Some people (say) ‘Look, why is he getting all these minutes? He’s not scoring?’ It doesn’t matter,” Wall said. “What he does for our team is what we need, and he has that veteran presence to take the challenge against anybody, battling and getting rebounds.
“If he gets five shots or zero shots, he’s still gonna be that same guy, and that’s what you appreciate about a guy like him.”