This is the sort of game the Rockets should win going away. The Memphis Grizzlies, shorthanded as almost always, and without Ja Morant, as per usual, should be the sort of team the Rockets beat. Not that they’re a bad team, or have bad players, they’re one of the deeper teams in the NBA, full of generally good players. They’re just always injured, and usually missing at least one of their two stars. The draft picks they got for Desmond Bane will no doubt help them draft still more good, but constantly
injured players, but that doesn’t help them much in the present.
To which I say, aw, that’s too bad.
Meanwhile the Rockets were as full strength as they’re likely to be for a while, though I suspect a fair few of them are battling illness. Jabari Smith in particular had that “I’ve got to choose to when to expend energy.” look tonight, and was sometimes out of the game, and not on the bench.
Meanwhile, Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson looked great, while Kevin Durant seems to be The Terminator of Mid Range Shots.
The Rockets have a problem of playing down to their competition, and they knew Memphis wasn’t really on their level, too. Memphis, for its part, seemed to have ignored that part, and played hard, and to win. They fielded a really small team overall, and that caused the Rockets a lot of problems defensively. Or seemed to, anyway.
What I mean by that is, Memphis scored a lot of easy seeming points, and grabbed a bunch of offensive boards by taking advantage of being smaller and quicker and getting to long rebounds more often. But what did all that add up to in the end? 99 points. So did the Rockets play bad defense? You can’t tell by the scoreboard, and that, after all, is what matters. For all the seemingly easy looks, Memphis shot 37% overall, and 19% from three point range on high volume. They scored 30 points in the second quarter, and never broke 24 in any other.
Maybe we’ve all been infected by Ime Udoka? He seems to regard any points scored on the Rockets as a deep insult, and likely a character flaw on the part of the defender. It’s an impossible standard, and when you look at a point total under 100 points, it’s hard to see what exactly the Rockets did so poorly overall.
The Rockets offense faltered a bit, too, until the fourth quarter when the Rockets stopped messing around, and put the Grizzlies away, 32-22.
There were three notable things tonight from Rockets players. One was a return to inside dominance for Alperen Sengun. As Memphis could only send Santi Aldama and Jaren Jackson Jr at Sengun. (I think JJJ is defensively an overrated player. He does stuff that looks great, but apart from highlights, he doesn’t seem do all that much overall, for a max player). Anyway, those two weren’t close to enough. Alperen Sengun went for 33pts/9rbs/6ast/1stl. He went 15-17 shooting. One of his misses was a late clock 3pt grenade thrown to him by Tari Eason. He shot 3-4 on FTs, and simply dominated inside on offense.
The second thing is that Amen has been generally excellent as a point guard lately. It helps that his teammates now occasionally indulge in the vice known as “Offense” from time to time, but this is mainly thanks to Amen playing the position better all the time, it seems. Tonight Amen had 14 assists to 4 turnovers, to go with 8pts, 8rbs and 1stl. He also played some really good defense.
A brief word about turnovers. For me, they come in different flavors. Some are careless, some are the result of panic, some are because a player is bad at dribbling, or passing, and some are bad judgment or as is often the case with the Rockets, from over passing, forcing a pass, rather than just taking a decent shot opportunity. Those are a problem. Some turnovers are a result of useful aggression, of attempting to break a defense, to find and involve teammates, that fail. Just as every missed shot isn’t the same, every turnover isn’t the same. The second group aren’t turnovers that bother me. Most of Amen’s 4 tonight were of that variety. He’s not panicking when he’s trapped or picks up his dribble anymore.
The third thing is Kevin Durant. It must be dispiriting to play against him. Well, it was certainly dispiriting to watch him play against the Rockets, most nights. A defense can do everything well against him, and it just won’t matter. Tonight he scored 33pts on 11-24 shooting, went 4-9 from three point range, and grabbed 8 boards, dished a couple of assists, and had a block. He does turn the ball over in odd, and frustrating ways, but since a high in Philly, he seems to have become much more careful. Some turnovers you’re just going to have to live with if you make Durant a play initiator, rather than just a scorer and finisher. As long as the number stays low, that’s fine.
Kevin Durant, however, truly shouldn’t be one of the highest minutes per game players in the NBA. There’s enough talent on the Rockets roster that if used properly can prevent this. But we’re seeing what every coach seems to see with KD. It’s just so easy to have him just fix all the offensive weaknesses, simply by being Kevin Durant. And so the minutes, and points pile up. Until they don’t.
Anyhow, a solid, if slightly concerning win. For all the gloom and doom, the Rockets are 16-3 at home. OKC is 20-4, Detroit is 18-4. The Rockets have played 19 at home, to 25 on the road. Next up, a sterner test against San Antonio on Wednesday, in Houston.
