Four In A Row
This one is going to be fairly short, as it’s both behind schedule due to a mix up (by me) and also never wanting to think about this game again.
To facilitate this, we’re going with Bullet Points: The Lazy Man’s Friend(tm). Now with faux Hegelian Dialectic!
- The Rockets absolutely deserved to lose this game.
- The Rockets absolutely should have won this game.
To expand on this a bit, the Rockets looked lethargic, directionless and terrible. Ime Udoka laid into this lack of energy, and lack of focus in his presser post-game. He said the Rockets played one half a quarter of good basketball. It might have been a third of a quarter, really. They largely kept pace with the Nets in the other quarters. “Keeping pace with the Nets.” isn’t acceptable for a top four finish in the West.
- The Had The Game Won With A 97-93 lead with 9.1 seconds left.
- The Rockets trailed 99-97 with 3.1 seconds left.
The Rockets clawed their way back into the game, and managed through some clutch baskets and free throws late in the game. It should have been enough. Instead Brooklyn got a good shot, off their last time out, with 8 seconds remaining. It probably should have been a two shot foul, with the hopes of keeping the lead on more free throws and the Nets having to go the length of the court with a few seconds to possibly tie.
Instead the Rockets, with a timeout remaining, got a terrible inbounds pass from Amen Thompson, who, along with the Rockets, basically didn’t move, either along the baseline or around the court. The ball skittered out to DLo who made a three to give the Nets a lead with 3.1 seconds left.
The Rockets had a timeout. The Rockets could have called it to set up another inbounds. They could have called it to move to halfcourt, and get a lot more space for the inbound pass. Instead, they did neither. That’s partly on Ime, and it’s partly on Thompson, and it’s all, generally, on the Rockets. This was easily the worst loss of the season.
- Alperen Sengun showed how much he was missed and was great.
- Alperen Sengun might have cost the Rockets the game.
Sengun, after missing three games (all losses) returned to score 24 points, grab 20 rebounds and dish four assists. He probably should have scored 27 points as he went 8-14 from the charity stripe. That would have brought the Rockets a win, despite the Nets 6 points in 6 seconds. Sengun is almost singularly vital to the Rockets. As much as I like Steven Adams, the Rockets need Sengun. They wouldn’t have been in position to win this dismal game, where they didn’t break 100 points against Pep Guardiola Jordi Fernandez and his zone defense, and constant “Gortat Pick” across the front of the rim.
- The Rockets remain a good team.
- The Rockets let the attention and good press go to their heads.
The Rockets have lacked energy and intensity in both games against the Nets, in short succession. The seemed to be operating like the Peak Harden Rockets where one quarter of great basketball is enough to rout most teams. They aren’t nearly that good, and can’t manage it, as the Nets have proven. Udoka said as much, without the Harden stuff, in his press conference, too.
- The Rockets finally used Reed Sheppard.
- The Rockets probably aren’t using Reed Sheppard correctly.
The Rockets other vital player is Fred VanVleet, as the tepid, directionless and somewhat selfish offense of this game proved. The Rockets played Reed Sheppard real minutes for the first of hopefully many times. He delivered 16pts, 7rbs, 2stl, 2blk in 28 minutes, going 3-9 from three point range. You might have noticed the lack of assists. That’s because Sheppard was used off ball, as a shooter, mostly. This is fine, but not when there’s really not a good distributor, and the opponent is crashing and trapping Jalen Green almost at mid-court. Taking that pressure away from Jalen, and letting him be a spot up shooter, which he’s now very good at doing, might be helpful.
That’s pretty much all I can muster on that clown show. It was painful to watch, and the ending was worse.