This game didn’t look close at the end. It didn’t look close in the middle, but due to some spectacularly awkward play by the Rockets in the third quarter, it was close up until the end.
This was a game
of extremes. Mostly extremes of baffling basketball and shooting dry spells. Both the Rockets and the Cavaliers had stretches of over 4 minutes, each, where they didn’t score a point. This isn’t easy to do in basketball, let along back to back, but they did it.
The Rockets subsequently built a 22 point lead, and then saw it slip away to 1 point in a memorably dismal third quarter. There are moments, sometimes many of them, when the Rockets largely guard-free, but mostly effective, offense just can’t get out of its own way. That was the third quarter. A festival of turnovers, overpassing, underpassing, missing bunnies, silly fouls that would seemingly never end.
The Rockets, as they saw their quarterly scoring go down in each the first three periods (1st -33pts, 2nd-24pts, 3rd-17pts) needed someone to step up. They needed a hero from off the bench. There was only one name to call. The obvious one: Aaron Holiday.
No, seriously, Holiday steadied the wheel, and got the floundering Rockets ship off the shoals of defeat. Aaron scored 18 point in 19 minutes, The Rockets almost certainly lose this game without him. Why?
Well, Kevin Durant had an off night shooting, going 6-18 and 1-6 from three. Not to worry though, he added 4 truly awful turnovers to the mix as well. He probably should have racked up more TOs, but some were blamed on teammates.
Teammates like Alperen Sengun, who shot it well, 10-17, for 28 points, with 11 boards and 7 assists. He added a robust 5 turnovers to that number as well. But there was more to his game than that, which we’ll get to eventually.
Amen Thompson, until late in the game did one thing really well – defend Donovan Mitchell, who is averaging 31pts per game this season, and hold him to 6 points for most of the game. He did another thing poorly, which is score. He missed bunnies, dunks, and layups at a great rate, until late. Later on Mitchell attacked the Houston zone, and broke it open. But in the end the Sunshine Superman only managed 18 points, mostly in the 4th, where the game got uncomfortably close. Fortunately, Amen started scoring, after at one point having close to as many steals as points.
Reed Sheppard looked good when he played, but sometimes cost the Rockets by gambling on steals he didn’t make, leading to easy points. Still, he’s turning into an extremely reliable catch-and-shoot player. Tonight he went 5-11 overall, and 2-5 from three, and showed a lot more confident attacking the rim.
In the end the player who clawed the game back, along with Aaron Holiday of course, was Alperen Sengun. The signature moments came late, when he was isolated at near mid court against Evan Mobley. In case you’ve forgotten, Mobley was the defensive player of the year last season. I’d argue Amen Thompson was a better defender, and perhaps Alpie helped make that case, as the two times he took the DPOY he either scored or was clearly fouled. Alpie scored 8 of the final 12 points for the Rockets, and in terms of the game being in doubt, 8 of 10.
Sengun made 8-10 from the free throw line overall tonight, and was 6-6 down the stretch. Fouling Alpie doesn’t work anymore. And if he left any doubt after toasting Giannis to seal the game late, Alpie stomped it out by taking Mobley to the basket in consecutive ISOs.
The Rockets didn’t play all that well tonight. They either looked great, or like a goat rodeo, with very little in between. They ended up winning by 10 anyway. Some may take that as a bad sign, but given that Cleveland is widely considered the top team in the East (though perhaps that’s Detroit right now), the Rockets are showing they can beat the best.
A stern test awaits them Friday against Nuggets in the NBA Cup. That should be a memorable battle, with perhaps the two best all around bigs in the NBA battling it out.
