Dwight Howard on His Return to The Hardwood

Houston Rockets center, Dwight Howard, who has missed a lot of games this season due to various knee injuries, made his return earlier this week, and is excited about his team going forward.

With the MVP-like emergence of shooting guard James Harden and the mid-season move to acquire forward Josh Smith, the Houston Rockets have been in the top 3 of the loaded Western Conference. Although with limited minutes and tough situational basketball, Houston has limited Howard's minutes to let him gain his conditioning, and slowly readjust his style to the teams' current style since his absence.

In this exclusive, Dwight talks about the team's performance versus division/state rival Dallas Mavericks, and how his team overcame a slow second quarter to win the game 108-101. Although he saw a limited amount of minutes on the floor, he was very happy about the Rockets overall performance, and how they willed themselves to a victory in the 2nd half.

He also talks about how the team contained the Mavericks' All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, which eventually forced the Mavericks to take long jumpers, especially considering that Monta Ellis, who is the Mavericks leading scorer, went 0 for 7 from the 3 point line. Rhythm wise, Dwight thinks with time he will be back in the groove and have the necessary burst to make an impact. Dwight felt like the team lacked communication issues in the first half, which led to his team having a huge discussion in the locker room to fix some of the miscues.

Although he had limited playing time during the game, Dwight expressed his frustration with the lack of playing, but stated that he understands he has to gain back his leg strength, as well as the trust from his coaches and teammates. Lastly, Howard talks about how poise was a key element in the victory versus the Mavericks.

Big Props to hollywoodcold85 () for the footage!