A less than ideal return from All-Star break results in another blowout on the road.
The Houston Rockets’ road woes continued following the All-Star break as they fell 127-105 to the New Orleans Pelicans this evening. Despite the mid-season refresher, the Rockets came out flat, looking overmatched by New Orleans’ physicality throughout.
The truth is that the Rockets got bullied tonight. Between the sheer strength of Zion Williamson and Jonas Valanciunas, the veteran savvy of CJ McCollum, and the honey badger-esque prowess of Herb Jones, Houston felt very much like the little brother in this matchup.
Jones, in particular, established the tempo of this game as he swarmed and continually disrupted the Rockets’ flow en route to 6 of the Pelicans’ 15 steals. It certainly wasn’t the outcome Houston hoped for as this game even featured Zion breaking out the “too small” taunt after powering through Dillon Brooks.
Sometimes it just goes that way.
Not much went right for the Rockets tonight, especially for the starters. Fred VanVleet, returning from a six game absence dating back to before All-Star Weekend, temporarily went back to the locker room at one point in the game, but thankfully he was able to return. However, his 7 point and 6 assist effort didn’t do much to combat the Pelicans onslaught.
While the box score may show that Alperen Sengun had a decent game, 20 points and 9 rebounds, even he couldn’t escape the fourth quarter benching that the entire starting unit unequivocally earned.
On the bright side, Amen Thompson followed up his previous career high of 19 points with a 22 point outing tonight. Add in his 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks, and he’s rapidly looking like the guy that was envisioned at pick number four.
With the game out of reach and the starters understandably benched, Thompson and the Rockets cut a nearly 30 point deficit in half with a fourth quarter lineup that also featured Jae’Sean Tate, Cam Whitmore, Jock Landale and Reggie Bullock.
At least they can say that they forced Willie Green to put his starters back in halfway through the fourth quarter. Consider it a small morale victory in what ultimately turned out to be a blowout.
This could have been a more competitive game had Houston not committed 24 turnovers and had they defended the paint better, but in the end it was more of the same. The Rockets you see at home and the Rockets you see on the road are drastically different. It’s clear that something must be done to quell the road issues, but with 27 games left in the season, and a play-in spot fading away, something has to shake sooner than later.
Hopefully it’s sooner.