Ariza has occasionally been putting the ball on the floor and attacking to counter the perimeter-focused resistance Houston faces. That anyone has even noticed, and considers it a new wrinkle, amuses Ariza, because he always had that as part of his game.

“When I first got into the NBA, that’s what I was pretty good at, getting to the basket,” he said. “As my career played on, I developed a jump shot. I’m just trying to do what my teammates need me to do. The defense takes away certain things, so in order to be successful and help my team, I have to do other things.”

Trevor Ariza nails a big 3-pointer in the Rockets-Celtics showdown.

Like a lot of players new to D’Antoni’s style, Ariza had to dial up his willingness to shoot the ball. That’s a mindset that often doesn’t come naturally to guys who haven’t traditionally been first or second scoring options.

“Just being aggressive is the main thing,” Ariza said. “One hundred percent you’ve got to be aggressive. When you’re not aggressive, you won’t help this team at all. It messes up the whole flow.”

Said D’Antoni: “It takes a little bit -- even Chris Paul is going through that process. To catch and shoot takes a pretty quick trigger.”

At 12.1 points and 9.7 field-goal attempts per game, Ariza is Houston’s No. 5 scorer. As a 3-and-D guy, the latter is a little more important than the former. His offensive (113.3) and defensive (105) ratings are solid -- and he flexed new skills as a back-seat singer in one of Paul’s State Farm commercials -- but Ariza’s efficiency ratings have him pegged as a below-average NBA player the past four seasons.

That’s one area in which the analytics-devoted Rockets might quibble with the numbers. Ariza has started all 54 games this season and is averaging 34.6 minutes.

“Trevor’s a blue-collar player who does everything,” veteran big man Nene said. “He can defend, he can pass, he can shoot it well. He can do multiple things in a game, and of course the way he deals with the players is very important. He is open to anyone in here. Everybody likes him, he’s a leader and he makes everybody better.”

Take an inside look back at the 17-game win streak Houston amassed.

Here’s a for-instance: D’Antoni credited the Rockets’ veterans, Ariza among them, for making sure bad habits didn’t creep in during the team’s recent 17-game winning streak. Coaches often dread such streaks, because it’s harder to bend players’ ears without a few teachable-moment losses.

Not these days, though.

“If we’re not setting the right picks or boxing out,” D’Antoni said, “before they even get back to the bench, they’ve already discussed it and got it.”

Said Ariza, who won a championship ring with the Lakers in 2009 and is hoping for a second this spring: “We know how to police ourselves. He lets us be creative. He lets us do our thing. And he’s there for reinforcement, the staff’s there for reinforcement. We appreciate it. We do our best not to let him down. That’s the benefit of having a veteran team.”

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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