Houston Rockets
Team Leader
The Sun Also Sets. Rockets Pluck Phoenix 117-98
Source: https://www.thedreamshake.com/rockets-analysis/37103/the-sun-also-sets-rockets-pluck-phoenix-117-98
The Rockets were without Alperen Sengun due to illness, and of course DFS (Definitely Fictional Signing) and FVV, The Suns were without Devin Booker, Isiah Livers and you may remember Rockets draftee Jalen Green, who is still out as well. (There was apparently some lingering BBS (Bradley Bealefluenza) in the locker room in Phoenix, and it has broken Iron Man Jalen Green). How would things turn out?
Well, despite the best efforts of Kanadian Kobe, Dillon Brooks, Mr.Vengeance, about the same as the last time the Rockets played Phoenix. which was a Rockets win by a similar score, 114-92. Phoenix beat the Lakers on Monday, and had a nice long rest before this one. The Rockets will travel to The Metroplex to play the Metroplexians tomorrow night, who will also play on a back to back after a short trip home from a loss to Occupied North Texas.
Anyhow, despite no Sengun, and a sluggish start, this one was over by early in the third quarter. The Rockets looked faintly terrible early on, losing the first quarter 31 to 24 to Dillon Brooks. They caught fire in the second quarter, winning that one 44-27, and continued to pour it on in the third, smacking the Suns to the tune of 29-14. The entire fourth quarter was garbage time.
The main news tonight is that Kevin Durant hit a big round number for total points scored in his regular season career, breaking through 31.000. Durant had passed Doctor J recently (combined NBA/ABA) and will, with any luck, pass Wilt Chamberlain at 31,419 points in the next few months. Dirk Nowitski, at 31,560, might fall this season as well with a healthy and steady scoring output.
If Durant, who has played in 17 of 20 games can keep to roughly that pace next season, and his current scoring output of 25ppg, he’d pass Michael Jordan (32,292) sometime in the first half of next season. He might overtake Kobe Bryant (33,643) that same season.
The execrable Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lebron James will be tougher. Malone stands at 36.928, and fortunately the great Kareem will always and forever be ahead of The Failman at 38,387. Unless Durant sees no falloff over the next three or four seasons the top three, including Lebron James at 42,268 (and counting, but slowly) are almost certainly out of reach.
Anyhow, back to tonight. Durant ended up putting on a display of the essence of what makes KD so special. He made impossible seeming shots look easy – slithering sideways and falling away the other direction in traffic, shooting a fall away from behind the backboard, leaning into a contested three pointer and swishing it. He scored 29 on 11-17 shooting, with his misses appearing to all come in the first quarter. He was 2-2 from three, only 4-4 on free throws, and added 4rbs, 8ast. 3stl, 1blk. He did have five turnovers, but again they seemed to come early, and some of them were on daring passes, which didn’t always work out, but a fair few did. It’s great to see a player charge forward past a milestone and Durant definitely did that tonight. As a Houston Rocket.
Amen Thompson had his best scoring game of the season, as no one on Phoenix could hope to stay in front of him. He scored 31 on 12-17 shooting, only attempted 1 three, which he made. He went 6-6 on continuing much improved free throw shooting. He had 4 rebounds and 1 assist to 3 turnovers. The Rockets essentially took the point guard keys away from Amen after a fairly dismal and ineffective first quarter in the role and handed them to Reed Sheppard and Kevin Durant. This worked out well, as Amen started doing things he is good at, instead of things he CAN do, but perhaps shouldn’t do, given there’s an actual, and arguably better point guard on the team, and what he does best, no one else in the NBA can do quite like him (except his clone).
Jabari Smith honestly sparked the Rockets comeback, playing with force, aggression, and an improved handle tonight. He scored 16 on 5-8 shooting. I’d love to see Jabari take more shots, be more assertive still, as the combination of an aggressive, effective Jabari and Kevin Durant simply overwhelms most defenses when it’s happening.
The Rockets all shot it well tonight, shooting 59% overall, 56% from three point range (on a mere 18 attempts) and 89% from the free throw line (on only 18 attempts). Phoenix, except for Dillon Brooks The ReReVenger, was abject shooting it tonight, shooting 39% overall, a woeful 14% from three on 36 shots, and a decent 79% from the line on 17-19 shooting. Rookie Jamaree Bouyea had a great night, unlike the rest of the team, scoring 18 points in mostly garbage time minutes, but also getting spectacularly and brutally rejected by Clint Capela on a high flying dunk attempt.
Clint “The Stag” Capela blocked Bouyea’s dunk with both hands and knocked him to the floor late in the game. Tonight was overall the best Capela has looked to me this season. He played 18 minutes tonight, grabbed 7 rebounds and had 4 blocks and a nice dunk on a feed from Reed. Perhaps the Steven Adams rejuvenation techniques are starting to work with Capela? He seems to be moving better, with more spring, and looks to be slimming down as well.
Was Phoenix’ shooting a product of great Rockets defense? To an extent. It was more a product of just not having much in the way of scoring threats beyond Brooks. Colin Gillespie and “Dick” Grayson Allen are good shooters, but neither is anything like a primary option. They feast off the space and threat Devin Booker, and shockingly, Dillon Brooks, provide. We’ll see what Jalen Green might bring to the table for the Suns if he can beat his nasty case of BBS (Bradley Beale Syndrome).
Brooks was his irritating, amusing self on his return to Houston, wherein both he and Jalen Green received a nice tribute video from the Rockets, and warm applause from the crowd. Brooks has somehow given yet another team a defensive identity. It’s undeniable at this point that this is something that just happens with Dillon on a team. Consider what Memphis’ defense has looked like since he left.
Tonight Dillon’s dreams came partially true, as he was free to do whatever he wanted on offense, and he started that off by scoring 14 in the first quarter. The Rockets focused on him after that, and he managed 9 more points the rest of the way. He ended up with 23 on 10-24 shooting with a 0-4 goose egg from three, 3-4 FT, 4 rbs, 4 ast, and four fouls, including jawing at Steven Adams, who actually appeared to be annoyed.
Anyhow, everything turned into a parade for Kevin Durant tonight. Hopefully Alpie will feel well enough to play in Dallas tomorrow, otherwise it’ll be a lot of Clint Capela and Jabari Smith against Dallas’ big frontline.
Source: https://www.thedreamshake.com/rockets-analysis/37103/the-sun-also-sets-rockets-pluck-phoenix-117-98