Dwight Howard and Omer Asik played 15 minutes together on Monday as the Houston Rockets experimented with their big lineup against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Rockets showed some flashes of quality with the pairing, but they also struggled with rotations on defense and spacing on offense.

"There's a lot of unknowns," Kevin McHale said. "They're both diligent. They're both intelligent. They both have really good instincts defensively. That should work defensively. Offensively, it maybe jammed up a little bit more. They'll figure it out.

"I played that way with bigs. I've seen it work before."

The Rockets looked far more fluid with their small lineup.

"That's also a more comfortable, faster, more exciting style of play, so it looks better," Chandler Parsons said. "But it's good to be able to go with Dwight and Omer, especially against bigger teams."

The Rockets, however, are committed to continuing to experiment with the big lineup.