The Rockets continue to make things interesting against bad teams. Through no fault of their own last season’s Eastern Conference Finalist, a team that was winning Game 7 of the Finals (it wasn’t actually an OKC coronation parade) before Tyrese Haliburton ruptured his Achilles, is a bad team.
At least the Rockets didn’t blow a lead and lose to the Pacers as they did the Pelicans and the Kings. The final score might indicate a fairly close game, but it was more of a magical, mystery, undoubtedly mythical, point spread covering experience as the Rockets lead dwindled from around 20 points to well within the 12.5 line.
But we needn’t wonder too much, as the Rockets seem capable of giving up big leads to bad teams with no help whatsoever. The mystery shall remain. One thing that’s clear this season, though, is that the Rockets third string, with no rugged Nates anywhere in sight, is kind of a pushover. It makes garbage time unpleasant.
The game started slightly poorly, with Indiana taking a brief lead in the mid first quarter before the Rockets closed them down to finish 30-25. They extended the lead with more good play in the second quarter, going into the half 66-48.
The third quarter was more of the same, with the Rockets extending the lead going into the fourth quarter 105-78. So that was the Pacers essentially routed and the Rockets took their metaphorical foot off the gas, hoping that the Pacers would run out of game before the Rockets ran out of lead. That’s exactly what happened, but the fourth quarter was mainly pleasant viewing for the family and friends of Pacers’ players mysterious and unknown to most.
The last stretch of the quarter featured the Pacers reserves all but mugging the Rockets, scoring off the sort of turnovers you might expect in an NBA game if there were no referees. This lead to the Pacers late “comeback”. The Rockets starters played more minutes than necessary because Dick Carlisle decided to put his starters back in the game in the fourth for reasons best known to him, so as honor demands, in came the Rockets starters, too.
This game didn’t tell us much, but I’ll venture a few insights.
Jabari Smith needs more set up for him to score.
Kevin Durant is not going to turn into a point guard at 36 years old.
Amen Thompson had a great all-around game. Until he can shoot it some, though, his life is going to be difficult at both ends of the court. It’s tough to ask a guy to guard the opponent’s best players and also be an NBA point guard, when maybe a presumed point guard skill package isn’t in place. So of course Amen played 37 minutes in a game where the next highest minutes total on the Rockets was 34 minutes for Durant and Jabari.
Steven Adams hurt his ankle. We will have to hope Alpy is back soon, and Adams won’t be out long. Perhaps Clint Capela will round into (or out of, depending on your view of roundness) form with more minutes. Perhaps the Rockets training staff will work the sort of magic they did with Adams, and find Clint’s hops, or some of them, anyway.
The only person who can really stop Reed Sheppard at this point is Ime Udoka. Why Reed is off ball so much, when he actually does have the whole point guard offensive package, is something only Smilin’ Ime can tell us.
It’s great to have Tari Eason back.
We have confirmation of Dependably Factual Signing’s existence. He played 16 minutes tonight. He’s going to need to accelerate on the on ramp if Adams is out any length of time, as you have to imagine Jabari Smith will play the five a good bit.
Aaron Holiday managed an impressive -14 in three minutes of play. One game plus minus isn’t all that revealing, but wow.
Running an offense that requires constant DHOs, sliding sideways out of picks to receive passes, and dribbling, starting from pretty much the same place, always, is a tough ask with a bunch of forwards. This game’s 16 turnovers were mostly a function of that, and you could see how much Sengun was missed. Those turnovers were almost all brutal, as they lead to 37 Indiana points. If they didn’t cash one, I don’t remember it.
The Rockets shot it really well. So did Indiana. It was really the rebounding edge that won it 50-29. The Rockets had 14 offensive boards to Indiana’s 7, but they got 6 of those 7 in late garbage time. Most of the way through the 4th quarter the Pacers were on pace for 1 offensive board in the whole game.
The Rockets battle the Nets on New Year’s Day in Brooklyn. Let’s hope they win, and close out the win well, too.
