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. 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 to do so. Josh Okogie, though, continues to be a nice surprise, 5-11, but that great number again, 3-5 from three.
Many of the misses for Eason, Jabari and Okogie came from unforced errors, and bad decision making on some shots. Okogie has been a great surprise, and very valuable to the Rockets.
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
