You Can Kyle Him the Man

Sure Kevin Martin leads the Houston Rockets in scoring at 16.6 points-per-game. Luis Scola is second and Kyle Lowry is the third leading scorer at 14 points per but if you’ve watched any Rockets’ games this season you would know that Lowry is the man in Houston.

Lowry has only played for two teams so far in his five-year NBA career. He started his career with the Memphis Grizzlies but was traded to the Rockets in the middle of his third year. Up until now he had never been viewed as more than a role player or a change of pace for the speedier guards he played behind but that is starting to change.

Last year was his first season as a full-time starter and that was only because Aaron Brooks couldn’t stay healthy. Even with that opportunity Lowry put up fairly average stats. He did show himself to be a hard worker though and a guy willing to do the dirty work to get the win.

But this season has been different. He’s changed. Lowry is way more aggressive than he was last year and has begun to impose his will on opposing teams.

His scoring is only slightly up from last year but a lot of his other numbers have increased significantly. It’s not surprising that he leads the team in assists at 9.7 per game which is three assists-per-game higher than last season. It’s also not surprising that he leads the team in steals at two-per-game which is also an increase over his numbers from last season.

It’s rare when your point guard leads your team in rebounding though. Right now, Lowry leads the Rockets with 6.9 rebounds-per-game which is crazy. It’s not like the Rockets don’t have capable rebounders on their team.

As a matter of fact Scola led the team last season with 8.2 rebounds-per-game but Scola’s numbers are down across the board this year.  Lowry on the other hand has increased his rebounds by almost three-per-game.

Lowry could probably score more but with no one else capable of creating their own shot he has worked to create for his teammates instead. Lowry had 12 assists and 20 points in his very first game of the season even though the Rockets lost to the Orlando Magic then turned around and passed for a career high 18 assists in a win against the Atlanta Hawks three games later.

Lowry has only had one game this season where he registered less than eight assists and that was in a blow-out loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Lowry was shooting lights out in that game but his teammates just couldn’t get things going.

Lowry can’t do everything though which means he is going to need his teammates to step up if the Rockets want to have a shot at making the playoffs. At the moment the Rockets are only 3-6 on the season but they have had a pretty rough schedule. Six of the nine games they have played have been on the road.

Don’t look for Lowry to make any excuses though. As he has shown so far this season, he is willing to try and pick up the slack for his teammates when they fail to produce. Why wouldn’t he? He’s the man right?

Roosevelt Hall is an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2 and also writes for Shatter The Backboard. He can be contacted at RHall@shatterthebackboard.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.