This one wasn’t pretty, but it was effective in the end.
Tonight none of the big names for the Rockets had a good offensive night. Sengun just looks broken right now, but of course he’s playing because Adams is out for the season, and someone Capela’s generally very good play of late hasn’t translated into more minutes for him. More on that below. The Rockets did enough late in the game, and held on to a lead that persistently narrowed as they once again had great difficulty with late game offense.
The Rockets finally got to play the Mavericks in Houston, and the game was close. Some people might wonder how Dallas, without Day-To-Davis, and Kyrie Irving can be competitive. One is they drafted what looks to be a truly amazing player in Cooper Flagg, who is doing what he’s doing at 19, and two, their roster is actually set up to work around such a player. It was built for Luka Doncic (and Irving was the second PG, and mostly an off ball scorer) but it largely works for Flagg as they are, without much fanfare now, using Flagg almost exactly as they did Doncic. That team reached the Finals, so being competitive, minus Irving, isn’t actually a miracle.
The Rockets lead at the half 59-51, and it might be hoped that they’d continue to build on their lead and have an easy time of it. But if you’ve watched the Rockets much this season, “Win, Over Easy” is rarely on the menu these days.
Cooper Flagg, coming off a 49 point outburst (in a loss) to Charlotte, scored scored 34 tonight, and seemingly all of Dallas’ points from midway through the 4th quarter that weren’t free throws, sort of lucky, or Klay Thompson annoyingly realizing he was in Houston, and making a few shots late, too. It wasn’t quite enough.
Durant, Thompson and Sengun all scored late, but the Rockets made it harder than it needed to be on themselves. They are persistently bad at trying to pass, and overpassing, on what should be easy looks, or an opportunity to go strong at the basket and get free throws. One example late was Tari Eason, on a fast break, deciding to pass to Jabari Smith at his feet. Jabari probably needed to slow down, and be a trailer rather that running beside or ahead of Eason, but these are offensive fundamentals, and best ignored in favor of More Defense. The point being, they do this sort of thing a lot. Some of it is being young, but for a bunch of young athletes to clank as many fast breaks as they do is distressing.
The shooting for the likely scorers was just bad, to make things more interesting. The two usual top scorers went Durant - 6-17, Sengun - 6-20. They did have 8 and 7 assists respectively, so they contributed to the team that way. Fortunately Jabari was 7-13 and 3-5 from three. Tari Eason was 7-15, also 3-5 from three. Amen Thompson was, you guessed it 7-15 as well, and took zero threes (yay). Sheppard was only 3-8, mainly due to going 0-4 from three. He looks to be rushing his shot, and there’s rarely a reason for him to do so. Josh Okogie, though, continues to be a nice surprise, 5-11, but recorded that great number again, 3-5 from three. If the Rockets are shooting it well from three, their lives could be made a lot easier by simple Shooting More Threes. They did take more than Dallas tonight, 26-23.
Many of the non three point misses for Eason, Jabari and Okogie came from unforced errors, and bad decision making on some shots. Okogie overall has been a great surprise, and very valuable to the Rockets. This is fortunate, as Dorian Finney-Smith has effectively contributed nothing to the team so far. His ten minutes tonight were slightly disastrous. This is worrisome, as the Rockets need him to play better, so hopefully
Tonight we also saw the offense only be initiated by Thompson, Sheppard, and to an extent, Sengun. We saw Durant positioned far better to score and pass, as well. What we didn’t see, thankfully, was the Rockets spamming the same Durant high dribble hand off, ISO, play, very much at all. It appears to have registered that defenses key on that. This had positive effects. The Rockets turned the ball over only 5 times. Durant turned it over once, to his 8 dimes, Sengun 2 to his 7. Thompson? Say Amen, somebody, 9 assists and no turnovers.
Just eliminating so many live ball turnovers, ones that are very difficult to defend in transition because they occur above the top of the three point arc, may have been the difference in this game.
Sengun really, really, seems to need a rest and to heal up. He’s moving poorly, and has trouble getting to where he needs to be on both offense and defense. It’s affecting his shooting as well. You could take the past few weeks as evidence Sengun is now a bad player, or go with the overwhelming weight of his previous seasons and consider what might be wrong with him.
In the end, the team got it done, and I’m sorry for a shorter recap, but I’m pinch hitting tonight. More wordy recaps will surely follow, but not tonight. Tonight we can be grateful the Rockets got a win, after things got dicey late.
The Old TC continues to be a fortress for the Rockets, their record there is 17-4.
See More:
* [Rockets Analysis](/rockets-analysis)
* [Rockets Scores](/rockets-scores-results)