Team Inconsistency, otherwise known as the Houston Rockets , has been trying to figure out a way to beam Brooks back to planet Earth.

Saturday night, they decided to just let the youngster play. And play. And play. And maybe he played his way back home.

Brooks looked like his old young self Saturday night, matching career highs with 22 points and nine assists in the Rockets' 110-93 win over Golden State at Toyota Center.

"He's just a young man who's hit a tough spot where his shot hasn't been falling in," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said of Brooks, who scored 20 points for just the fourth time of his career.

The first thing Adelman did was get his second-year point guard into the game early. He subbed with 6:49 left in the first quarter, much sooner than normal. He also had him play alongside Rafer Alston for 16 minutes, which relieved some of his ball-handling duties.

Just as importantly, perhaps, Adelman said he was concerned Brooks was spending too much time on the floor with teammates who weren't the best fit, particularly with how he was playing.

So much of Brooks' early play against the Warriors was with starters. The weird thing, though, was once Brooks got going, he didn't come out. At all.

Brooks was on the floor for almost 43 minutes, by far the most minutes he has seen since a stretch of poor play began with a 2-for-10 night against the Lakers eight games ago.

Staying on the floor

"I was kind of surprised when he put me in the game," said Brooks, who admits he looked over at the scorer's table a couple of times, expecting to leave the game. It never happened. "When you have starters out there . . . there's less attention on you and you're more free to go out there and play. When you go to the hole you don't have to worry about three guys collapsing toward you."

Brooks did draw defensive attention when he got into the lane, and it paid off for the Rockets.

Four times he went to the basket and missed drives, but teammates scooped up rebounds for putbacks.

"I kind of think those are assists; it's a strategy," Brooks joked.

He might have little success convincing the NBA official statisticians that an assist can be had from a missed layup, but Rockets coaches count those as successful possessions.

Good thing Brooks brought some game, because for the most part Alston didn?t. For the second consecutive game, Alston didn't manage a field goal in the first half.

This time, with Brooks playing well, Adelman allowed Alston to stay on the bench and enjoy the show. Alston (1-for-8) played just 22 minutes and did not play at all in the fourth quarter.

This wasn't a blowout, either. The Rockets didn't open a double-digit lead until midway through the final period.

Brooks was only one minute, 13 seconds off his season high. But those came in a game that Alston missed with an injury. This was different.

Adelman said it was important that he let Brooks finish.

Such a night was exactly what Brooks and the Rockets needed. When Brooks is not playing well, the Rockets' second unit struggles. When Alston doesn't play well, the Rockets' first unit typically isn't efficient.

Brooks hasn't been much of an alternative lately in the latter such situations.

A different player

Remove a decent 5-for-9 performance from the field against the Knicks, and Brooks had made just 11 of his last 51 shots (2-of-16 on 3-pointers).

Rockets coaches have reviewed tape of Brooks when he was playing well, and as the numbers indicate, they have been watching a different player recently.

"You can see him being much more aggressive ? I don't want to say playing harder a month ago, but with more confidence and more aggression," Adelman said. "You just have to believe in him. The one problem with him sometimes in some people we play, it's a hard matchup for him."

As if with that in mind, the NBA schedule brought the small-ball-playing Warriors to town.

The 5-10, 161-pound (yeah, that's all) Brooks got a favorable matchup size-wise with the Warriors' Montae Ellis (6-3, 180) and C.J. Watson (6-2, 175)

Oh, and Golden State (15-33) was coming off a win at New Orleans on Friday and has won two games in a row only three times this season.

A perfect fit for a player looking for a new beat.

"I got into a rhythm," Brooks said.

Yeah, a lot less funky one.