Like a cold glass of iced tea (Unsweetened, what are you, from the deep south? Be a proper Texan.) on a hot Houston day, this game was the refreshment Rockets fans were craving. No more 1 point double overtime losses in OKC on their senior ring and letter jacket night, no more Jerry Sloan Rides Again Detroit Pistons, with one ejection, two foul outs, 31 personal fouls and 48 Rockets free throws that somehow became a 4 point loss.
This, like the ice tea was easy to drink in large amounts and all the more welcome for it. We can only thank Pep Guardiola (some call him Jordi Fernandez) and all 5 Nets first round picks, and Cam Thomas - the lazy man’s James Harden, for it. I’ll treat Pep to a combo plate of cheese enchiladas to go with his tea for the generosity of the Brooklyn Nets tonight.
How generous were they? 137 points generous, and the whole fourth quarter was pretty much garbage time. So it turns out that context might matter, especially when you only have two data points. Now we have three games in the books, and as we have only about 96% of the season yet to play, we can definitely draw strong conclusions.
Alright, we can’t. But we can make observations. Or I can, here, and you can below in the comments.
1. -If the first three games of the Rockets season (and a couple more I’ve watched) are any indication, the NBA would like defense to be a touch less physical overall. Thunder vs Pacers featured 91 free throws. The Rockets shot 48 against Detroit. Tonight, despite there not being a ton of Brooklyn FT, most of them were, by the standards of last season, and every OKC game, pretty soft. This could mean a crackdown on physical play, it could mean it’s the first week of the season. It could mean nothing at all. Let’s hope it doesn’t mean a return to the pure foul baiting of a couple of years ago, with offensive players initiating all the contact, and shooting free throws.
2. I’m not sure the Rockets two big lineup is anything more than a sometime thing. But let’s not call it a gimmick or a meme just yet. One of the factors that made that lineup work was surprise. Nobody is surprised this season. In fact, Detroit was prepared to hunt and attack that lineup. You didn’t see this problem as much against OKC because they’re overall a small ball team, with two exceptions. Against Detroit, who is overall a big team, with a huge PG to boot, and also features a literal clone of Amen Thompson (and vice versa), it just didn’t work. It didn’t provide a free throw advantage, and the zone defense that accompanied it got cooked repeatedly by basically classic junior high zone attack offense.
This lineup further didn’t provide a big rebounding edge against Detroit and has overall looked woeful in transition. The reason for this is, I think, adding Kevin Durant. For all the great things about Durant one thing he isn’t is fast, nor has he generally been a super connected defender. When he’s on the court with Adams, and Sengun, you’ve got two very slow to rotate and run players, and another big. Sengun is mobile - for a center.
Tonight started out without Adams in the game, and not playing that lineup, the Rockets took off on offense, and defense. That might partly be due to…
3. Playing an actual guard sometimes. You may not always play games with the PG you want, you sometimes play with the PG you have. The point guard they have is Reed Sheppard. Tonight, in a slightly less brutal matchup, he showed why a many people (myself included) are big believers in Reed. Sure, not every opponent will be the Nets, but not every opponent will be the Thunder, or Ausar Thompson, either.
What we saw was a point guard doing his primary job, making life easier for the offense. In fact in his 24 minutes Reed had 8 assists against 2 turnovers (one of which was careless, one was bad luck) but in any case, 4 to 1 will play. He also went 6-11, and 3-7 from three. His range, and shooting threat, created a lot of space for the other Rockets, as did his ability to get mostly where he wanted on the court. He also just stripped Cam Thomas at mid court and went for the jam, which is fun. In this game he didn’t look like the seasoned PG the Rockets need, but he looked really good for a PG who has only played 700ish NBA minutes.
Reeds defense wasn’t perfect, but there weren’t any blow-bys either. He fought through screens or at least attempted to do that. He didn’t gamble on low probability steals, but he deflected balls, and convinced a number of ballhandlers they didn’t want to dribble near him. That is progress. He needs to stop picking up his dribble in weird spots, though.
Also returning to good graces tonight was
4. Tari Eason. This was a sea change from the first two games Eason played. Tari went for 22 points on 8-12 shooting, and 5-7 from three. He added 8 boards, an assist and a block, and generally went around being a menace. The shot looked really good, and defenses almost have to leave him open if the likes of Durant, Jabari and perhaps Reed Sheppard are on the court. More of this will get Tari paid. More shooting is very welcome.
5. Good game for Durant, though the kinks aren’t worked out on offense, or defense, the effort from Durant is mostly there. He scored 19 in 25 minutes. Mostly it is good to see his minutes load being low and that he can score a bunch of points when you might think he’s having a humdrum game.
6. Alpie had a return to form - 30 minutes, 7-11, 2-2 3pt, 5-5FT, 9 rbs, 6 ast, 1 stl for 21 points. He forced it less this game, and probably felt like he didn’t need to. Strong outing overall for Sengun.
7. Solid efforts from Jabari Smith, who looks stronger, more decisive and seems to have a more secure handle. At times he looked like a baby Durant, with his quick two dribble past an opponent into an easy middie.
8. Strong return to expectations for Amen Thompson as well. 5-10 shooting, 2-3 FT, 4 rb, 8ast, 1 stl, 0 TO. This game made me more hopeful than anything seen so far about the prospects of an Amen/Reed platoon as the primary ballhandlers. Jae’Sean Tate also got minutes which was nice to see, and seemed to knock a bit of rust off.
9. Steven Adams only played 16 minutes, but they were hugely impactful and effective. A plus minus of +30 in 16 minutes is strong, even if you hate single game plus/minus. This was more the dominant Adams of last season, enforcing his will in the paint, rather than struggling to rotate on defense.
10. Josh Okogie started, and at this point I’m pretty sure he’s Ime Udoka’s authorial insertion character. He did pretty well, even if he didn’t stuff the stat line. He plays a very awkward, but effective, offense. He made his open threes. He had a couple of steals, and is an absolute maniac with one on one defense. Sure, he got four fouls, but very few shooting fouls. He got his money’s worth in that regard in his 31 minutes. What he mainly did was speed up the Rockets defense, especially in transition and rotation, and unclog the paint to an extent. Until DFS returns I expect to see him start more (unless Reed keeps having games like this one).
11. The caveat to all this wonderfulness is that it’s the Nets, a team their owner suggested was tanking. That said, a 28 point win is the kind of thing a Rockets fan wants to see against such a team, and we saw.
12. Exhale.