Garrison Mathews launches Rockets to third win in four games

Former Houston Rockets coach and Hall of Famer Rudy Tomjanovich once told reporters that he would tell the team’s very best shooters, if they ever felt like they were in a shooting slump, to just keep shooting.

“Rudy T” could have passed that advice on when he met with second-year Rockets coach Stephen Silas last month, hours before a celebratory ceremony at Toyota Center to honor his Hall of Fame induction. In turn, Silas may have whispered it to guard Garrison Mathews at some point in the last few days to help him with his recent shooting woes.

Mathews, 25, had a terrible three-game stretch from Jan. 10 through Jan. 14 where he averaged 1.6 points and shot 1-for-11 from 3-point range, with that one make coming in the first game versus Philadelphia. Mathews was held scoreless for the first time all season in his next game at San Antonio, and he followed that performance up with another scoreless night in the first game of two in Sacramento.

Even though he was in a horrific shooting slump, Mathews never lost confidence in his 3-point shot, which earned him a four-year contract with the Rockets earlier this season. In a 118-112 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, Mathews finally broke out of his funk with 17 points on 4-of-6 shooting (66.7%) from 3-point range.

Then, with Houston needing a spark on Wednesday as an underdog in Utah, Mathews tied his career-high with 23 points and shot 5-for-9 (55.6%) on 3-pointers. That launched the Rockets to a 116-111 victory at Vivint Arena, giving Houston (14-32) a third win in its last four games.

“When you have a good shooting game, your confidence starts to build back up,” Mathews said postgame to reporters. “I had a tough few games, but that is just going to happen. The main thing for me is to not get so high or too low. When you are a shooter, you are going to have games like that or little stretches like that, but it is very important as a shooter to just keep your confidence all the time.”

Mathews gained the confidence of his coach on Monday night as he played 19 straight minutes off the bench to end the game. That would also seem to be an excellent indicator that Mathews has fully recovered from the time he missed due to COVID-related issues.

“He was so good, it was hard to take him out of the game,” said Silas, who kept Mathews in to close out Wednesday’s win while leaving highly touted rookie Jalen Green on the bench. “I was definitely concerned. I was waiting on a time he looked like he was running out of gas. He didn’t show that, so I kept him in the game. He fought defensively. He made big shots. It was hard to get him out of the game.”

Though the Rockets are 3-1 on their current five-game road trip, they will get a better gauge for how much improvement they’ve made when they face the Golden State Warriors (32-12) on Friday to finish it off.