The Rockets offense had been putrid without Alperen Sengun in the lineup, so going into Sunday’s game against the Sacramento Kings, Rockets fans were hopeful his return to the lineup would set things right. It didn’t. The Rockets lost the game 111-98 after a second consecutive fourth quarter meltdown, allowing 33 points in the quarter and only scoring 22 points. The Kings came into the night having only won 8 games on the season, one of them being against the Rockets in overtime back on Dec 21st.
Now, with 9 wins that the Rockets can take ownership of two of them.
The Rockets shot 42.9 percent from the field, an anemic 23.3 percent from the three-point line, and 65.5 percent from the free-throw line. As the game wore on the misses began to affect their effort on defense and the boards, especially in the fourth quarter where they shot 5-for-15, 1-for-6 from the arc, and missed six free throws. Meanwhile the combination of DeMar DeRozan, Zach Lavine, Russel Westbrook, and Malik Monk cooked the Rockets who only had 13-points off the bench compared to 34 bench points for the Kings.
The Kings beat the Rockets at their own game, outrebounding them 57-54 and grabbing 18 offensive boards, out hustling the Rockets to the 50/50 balls. It was an overall bad night for the Rockets. It’s not an overreaction to say that some of their bad habits are becoming a trend. Like losing games to bad teams. Everyone on the team has some culpability, but all eyes will and should be on Ime Udoka to turn things around. I’m not an NBA head coach, but I know starting Aaron Holiday, playing him 28 minutes, watching him go 1-for-7 in the game, watching the opposing team search him out on the defensive end, and looking up and seeing he was a -19 on the floor, might make me reconsider starting him when before Tari Eason’s most recent injury he was a consistent DNP coaches decision.
Alperen Sengun may have needed to shed some rust after missing 4 games with a right ankle sprain, an injury that is likely not 100% healed. He scored 19 points on 8-of-20 shots, grabbed 9 rebounds, dished 4 assists, and had 1 blocked shot. Jabari Smith Jr. continues to struggle offensively, and his body language has been concerning as well as the impact it has had on his defensive effort. Even Kevin Durant had what is by his standard a sub-par game. He still shot 50 percent from the floor, 44.4 percent from the three-point line, but only got up 18 shots on a night his offense was about the only offense the Rockets had.
It’s a bad stretch for the Rockets who have become a bad road team. Since the beginning of December, they have won only 3-of-13 road games. On the flip side, in that same time span they have yet to lose at home. There is the silver lining, at least that is the hope of Rockets fans as the team returns to Houston for a five game homestand, and will play eight of the next eleven games at Toyota Center. As always TDS will be here for pregame and post-game coverage, as well as interactive discussion during the games. The Rockets return to action on Tuesday against the Bulls. Tip-off will be at 7:00 PM CST.
