Entering this series against the Utah Jazz, the Houston Rockets weren’t sure what to expect out of Clint Capela. He was battling an illness and he struggled against the Jazz this season.
In their 122-90 Game 1 win on Sunday night, Capela put all of those worries to rest.
After averaging only nine points and 12 rebounds while shooting just 38.7 percent against Utah in the regular season, Capela had 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting and 12 rebounds in the win. He played with an upper respiratory infection to boot.
Afterwards, he talked about what was bothering him to reporters.
“It was probably my toughest game. It felt kind of hard to breathe like I used to.”
If this is Capela while he’s sick, just imagine when he gets healthy. He is a big piece of this playoff run the Rockets plan to go on and avenge coming up short in the 2018 Western Conference Finals.
After averaging 12.7 points and 11.6 rebounds in the 2018 postseason, Houston will need more of this type of performance from Capela night in and night out moving forward.
Game 2 is Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. CST from Toyota Center.
