Jekyll and Hyde Rockets. Again.
The Jekyll and Hyde Rockets were at the height of their dual nature.
The Rockets lost the first half 71-43. The got behind as many as 31 points.
The Rockets won the second half 73-48, and lead by one point before going to overtime against the Golden State Warriors.
They lost the overtime 8-2.
The First Half
The Rockets offense was terrible, and looked and smelled like the dirty water in your kitchen sink after a big party, with the sink now clogged. Nobody wants to put their hands in the thing to take the dishes out, and try to clear it, but you’re going to have to do it at some point.
The Rockets defense was completely bumfuzzled by the Warriors movement, and didn’t close out on shooters. Shooters like The NBA’s Best Player – Chavano “Buddy” Hield. At the end of the first half the Warriors were shooting 64% from the field, 67% from three, and 56% from the line. “The Line” has its role to play in this story, as well.
Kindly Doctor Jekyll was being taken to the woodshed and beaten.
The Second Half
Doctor Jekyll did not emerge from the woodshed in the second half. It was the terrifying Mr. Hyde, in the form of stifling defense from Tari Eason, Jabari Smith, Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun in the third quarter. The smallball Warriors were stymied, confounded, to the tune of 25 points, and it really should have been fewer.
The Rockets did even better in the fourth quarter, scoring 39 points to 23 as the defensive havoc and offensive explosion continued, mostly in the form of Tari Eason. Sadly, he missed two free throws late that might have sealed the win, when the effort of almost single-handedly shutting down the Warriors left him gassed.
Overtime
Overtime saw a new character take the stage – Ime Udoka. Ime more or less put the starters back in, with the addition of Tari, but minus Alperen Sengun, despite the Warriors playing Kevon Looney, and Draymond Green fouling out early.
What’s wrong with that? Well Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet were both terrible, though Jalen might have defended better than Fred. They combined to go 4-25 shooting. This was by far Jalen’s worst game of the season. It was an average night this season for Fred.
Was Alpie bad? Is that why he wasn’t in the game? I’m unconvinced. He looked bad on defense in the first half, but played very well in the third quarter. The whole Rockets team looked bad in the first half, though somehow Alpie gets the defensive blame, not 40 minute Fred VanVleet.
Alpie went 5-10 for 14 points, with 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block in 21 minutes. Could he have grabbed a board? Could he have scored against a small Warrior lineup? Did he most likely have energy after only playing 21 minutes? In my mind, the answer is yes to all, and Ime badly botched the overtime.
The Line
The Warriors, as ever, get some decided advantages from whistles. Tonight they shot 50 (FIFTY) free throws on 32 Rockets fouls. The Rockets shot 24, on 22 Warriors fouls.
Nobody wants to turn to the refs, but the Warriors certainly didn’t attack the basket a lot more than the Rockets. The Warriors were, if anything, more aggressive and physical on defense, especially in the first half.
Given what I saw, it was hard to justify the Warriors literally having a free throw margin greater than the total number of Rockets free throws, more than double that of the Rockets.
One thing that does affect the free throw shooting, I think, is how teams defend the Rockets versus defending the Warriors. Opponents collapse in the paint on the Rockets, to either stop Alperen Sengun operating, or stymie a driver like Green. This makes fouls inside both harder to see, and also less likely to be called. If refs think a player is “taking on three defenders” whether they really were or not, they don’t call fouls as often, generally. Or they just don’t see them through all the bodies near the basket.
Conversely, the Warriors, since they tend to be very widely spaced, often end up with a one on one in the paint, and any possible contact is easy to see, even if the Warriors player initiates it. I’d honestly like to see fouls suppressed on plays where the shot itself wasn’t altered by the foul, and was basically a “no hoper”. Which describes about two thirds of Kuminga’s forrays into the paint, for example.
We don’t want this stuff to matter, but 26 more free shot attempts has to matter. The Warriors only made 32, but the Rockets made 18. The game was decided by six points.
If you don’t think this merits consideration, fine, but I’d say this season so far, NBA reffing has been a dumpster fire. I watch a lot of games, and it’s frankly terrible, a baffling mixture of incredibly tetchy, or soft calls, and bloody murder elsewhere, mostly the paint, with no calls, or unbalanced calls.
Questions
Tonight left a lot of questions.
- How much longer can the Rockets afford to not only play Fred VanVleet 40 minutes, but play a guy shooting 30% from the field, on real volume, those same minutes? Reed Sheppard’s seven minutes were good. Aaron Holiday’s 16 minutes were also good. Fred has probably shot the Rockets out of two wins so far this year. His defense, overall organization, and passing don’t mitigate it all at 2-12.
- What the Hell is going on with Ime and Alpie’s minutes? Why are his struggles the only struggles that nail a player to the bench? They haven’t with Fred, with Jalen, with Dillon, with Jabari. What are the coaches seeing in his play that I’m missing?
- Why is the only answer to bad offense “Try Harder”? Why doesn’t the offense itself offer any answers? It’s rudimentary, and opponents know EXACTLY what to do to thwart it. Mean-mugging can only do so much, Ime.
- Every game we see opponents crash the ballhandler, and trap him, to disrupt the high pick and roll, and the sag off shooters so they can collapse in the paint on Sengun or a driver from the Rockets. That’s it. That’s what everyone does. What is the response? All I’ve see is “Hope for Individual Brilliance”. Is there a favorite play? If so, what? Why can’t the Rockets punish the traps and double teams?
- Nailing “spacers” to corners, when they will never get a “kick” from drive and kick because the paint is closed, nor from the top of the 3pt arc, because the ballhandler is being hounded by two players, isn’t helping things. Those spacers aren’t pulling away defenders, and they aren’t setting double screens, or making cuts. They won’t bring more traffic to Fred or Jalen, because the traffic is there with them already. Why can’t they move, as both a baseline cut and a relocation to the other corner? The offense is already clogged at that point anyway, so how is it slowing things down?
- How is it Golden State can run a fast flowing offense not with Steph, Durant and Klay, at their peak, but with Buddy Hield (largely a disappointment in his last three stops), Andrew Wiggins, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemsky, Lindy Waters III, and Jonathan Kuminga? There’s one long term Warrior in that mix. Two, with Draymond Green. So it’s possible to have a good offense with new, or young, or even marginal seeming players. Why can’t the Rockets have one?
- Do the Rockets need an Offensive Coordinator? Has Ime has passed the statute of limitation on blaming his players for Not Getting It or whatever? They’re young, yes but other teams have run good offenses with young players. Golden State can do it with their talent, minus Curry, and the Rockets can’t? If OKC can dominate with young players, can the Rockets be above average? Again, “Try Harder” isn’t offense. It’s effort. Make more shots isn’t improved offense, it’s better shooting with the same offense.
- It’s horrible to see the Rockets play awful, and it’s fun to see them come back. In the end, though, they shouldn’t get in these holes, and they shouldn’t need to expend maximum effort to get back into games in the first place. It’s early days, but when I look for what the plan is, what the blueprint is for offense, I just don’t see one right now. Things will certainly improve with time, but they should also improve with scheme.