Houston Rockets star Jalen Green has shot over 40% from the field every game in 2025. That’s five straight games of at least passably efficient basketball from the erratic young star. Moreover, only one of those games was against the kind of teams that Green usually gets his numbers against – the Washington Wizards. Is Green preparing for another deployment of the Dunkstronaut? Let’s dive into Green’s impressive 2025 start.
Young Rockets’ Star Jalen Green Has an Impressive Streak to Start 2025
In 2025, the Rockets have played the Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and, most recently, the Memphis Grizzlies. Those are all competitive teams with playoff aspirations. They also played the Wizards. A five-game sample size may seem small, but it’s still the largest streak of consecutive games shooting over 40% from the field that Green has managed this season.
In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to March of last year, when he put together two such stretches of exactly five each, the only such streaks he had all season. He had some longer ones in his rookie season, but since then, five is the longest he’s been able to string together. Green normally oscillates between exceptional highs and excruciating lows. Seeing him play consistently well to start the year has been refreshing.
Green Still Prized By Rockets Front Office
One could argue that Green still has the highest ceiling of all of the Rockets’ young players. While potential All-Star Alperen Sengun is the team’s best player right now, Amen Thompson would be the main competitor for the highest ceiling. Thompson is a more complicated archetype to build around though.
A superstar version of Thompson looks more like the Rockets’ own miniature Giannis Antetokounmpo, a skinny (that is, even skinnier) Zion Williamson, or a confident, near-DPOY Ben Simmons. As good as that sounds, that’s a difficult offensive skill set to accommodate in a wing.
A superstar version of Green could play anywhere. A lead ball-handler, an isolation scorer, a shooter, and a serviceable defender. It makes sense to value that ceiling. Then, of course, there are the highlights that blow the roof off and let in his legions of young fans.
Adjusting to Adjustments
Consistency is key, however, and the upper stories of Green’s potential are locked away until he finds it. Five games in January aren’t enough to prove he’s unlocked anything. But there are some encouraging signs.
Mainly, it’s about Green adjusting to adjustments. Green isn’t inconsistent in a vacuum. Maybe his jump shot is a little, but plenty of star players have streaky jump shots. If anything, in his Rockets career so far, Green has been remarkably consistent in how easy he has made it for opposing defenses to take him out of the game. The inconsistency in his box score numbers comes from how often teams choose to commit to doing so.
Smart defenses overload on Green’s drives and make sure to show help at the rim. Green has a hunt-and-destroy mentality. When he sees a big man at the rim, his instinct is to try to dunk on them. Perhaps if he had a more favorable whistle (refereeing being a reliable source of inconsistency for players across the league), the strategy might be more effective. As it is, many of Green’s drives end in bad, forced shots when other plays are available.
Green In Rockets-Grizzlies Part I
In part one of Houston’s three-game January battle versus the Grizzlies, Green was able to adjust. After lighting the Grizzlies up for 13 points in the first quarter, the Grizzlies tried to take him out of the game.
It worked in the second quarter, in which Green went one-for-four, but Green was able to come back to produce two more solid quarters in the second half (discounting some late turnovers prompting Ime Udoka to cram the ball back in the hands of Fred VanVleet). The referees hardly bailed him out with only two free throw attempts for the game. It did certainly help that his three-pointer was falling, but the in-between game was also paying dividends.
Last season, Green went on a post-All-Star-break rampage. During March of 2024, he averaged 27.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. The secret ingredient may have been the extra spacing of the Jabari Smith Jr. small-ball line-up necessitated by the injury to Sengun. Now Smith is the one who is injured and the spacing is worse than ever with Thompson in the starting lineup instead. Yet Green has played some of the most even-keeled basketball of his career.
The Last Word
Maybe Green’s streak will be short-lived. He’ll certainly be tested in the Rockets’ next game by the Hawks’ Outback bandit, Dyson Daniels. On the other hand, maybe it’s only just beginning. The Dunkstronaut is preparing to launch. The steady countdown fills the air. Rockets fans, Green believers or not, won’t be able to tear their eyes away.
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