Jason Terry has made a lengthy career out of providing a spark. The former Sixth Man of the Year, NBA champion and current leader among all active players in three-pointers thrives on situations in which his team needs a big bucket.
That hasn’t changed from his rookie season in 1999 until now, his 17th. So when the Rockets found themselves squandering a 16-point lead late in the fourth quarter to the Sixers on Wednesday, Terry stepped in.
The Sixers had cut the deficit to only two points with four minutes to play when Terry knocked down a three from Trevor Ariza to push the lead back up to five, 108-103.
“Every time we penetrated tonight and we moved the ball, we’d get an open look,” Terry said after Houston handed the Sixers their 13th straight loss, 118-104 (see Instant Replay).
“At times we got stagnant, they loaded up on us and we didn’t make necessarily the right play. But if we trust the game and make the right play offensively, then we’ll get looks like that.”
Less than two minutes later, and the score still the same, he drained another trey from James Harden. Isaiah Canaan fouled him on the shot, and Terry connected on a four-point play to give the Rockets a nine-point lead they never relinquished.
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"Then you remember killer corner threes, leaving corners in the fourth period," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "We got down, boom, we get it to three and just couldn't close it out."
“Those were big shots and that’s what Jason Terry does,” Ish Smith said.
The Rockets saw opportunities from the Sixers' defense to find Terry for the buckets.
“We know that if I’m setting a screen and rolling, they have to help,” Dwight Howard said. “Somebody has to come hit me and try to keep me from getting to the basket. Once that happens, then you’re leaving our three-point shooters out for open shots. All they’ve got to do is have a second to look at the basket and it’s going up. I think it’s really tough to defend.”
Howard recorded a double-double, his 30th of the season, with 21 points and 18 rebounds. While his Rockets handed the Sixers their 56th loss of the season, Howard, an 11-year veteran, sees positives in Brown's young squad.
"They're a tough team," Howard said. "The record doesn't show it, but those guys, they play extremely hard and that's one thing I always respect about their coach and the way he coaches these guys is how hard these guys play every single night, no matter what their record is.
"They’re a tough team to put away no matter what because they play so hard and they never give up."
As for Terry, he was just 1 for 3 from long range before his pair of fourth-quarter treys. For the veteran who has a career average of 37.9 percent from three, including 39.1 percent in the postseason, the catch-and-release is like clockwork.
“Throughout my career I’ve made a thing of hitting big shots when the team needs them most, regardless of how I’m going throughout the game,” Terry said. “I just felt it in the moment.”