Let’s all take a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out, and AAAAAAAAAAAA.

In case you missed the Rockets’ game against the Denver Nuggets, I think the fact that I am starting the article off with breathing exercises shows how it went. Now before anyone tries to make excuses for the loss since it was the second night of a back-to-back and Denver is in high altitude, just save your excuses as a team that entered the season with contention aspirations should not be getting embarrassed like this for the second time in less than seven days.

The game was close heading into halftime, with both teams making mistakes, as both Denver and Houston were turning the ball over. The difference, however, was the shooting. Amen Thompson started the game by missing his first four shots, and going into the second quarter, nobody on the Rockets had scored more than nine points. However, in the second, it appeared that Amen had something going as he then made all four of his next shots. Thompson finished the game with 16 points, four assists, five rebounds, and a steal while shooting 8/14 from the field and 0/1 from the free-throw line. Jabari Smith Jr. only scored two more points after scoring nine in the first quarter, but shot relatively well, going 5/10 overall and 1/2 from three. Both Sengun and KD had mediocre to bad games, and honestly, the only reason I am saying their games weren’t outright bad was that their efficiency shooting not at the free throw line was decent (I will get to the free throw shooting), with both going 5/8 from the floor. However, both Durant and Sengun turned the ball over at least twice.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this game was the poor free-throw shooting. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but free throws are called what they are because the points are supposed to be FREE. With that in mind, how on earth do you go 5/14 for 35.7%? I legitimately believe I could have made more free throws than that, and I quit basketball in the sixth grade when I couldn’t make a layup.

If the free-throw shooting was the worst aspect, then the three-point shooting would definitely be the second worst. Up until the second part of the fourth quarter, the Rockets were in contention to break the record for the fewest threes made as they had made just two threes in over 36 minutes of basketball. I honestly believe the kids I teach after school could have made more threes, and most of them are under the age of ten. Honestly the best part about this game is that it is over.

Houston will look to turn things around on Friday versus the Pelicans at home, and for everyone’s sake, but especially my therapist, they will hopefully look much better back on their home court after a bit of rest.

Tonight’s Rockets win over the the 5th place Toronto Raptors was just the thing for a Rockets team that was soundly thrashed by the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.

Almost everything a Rockets fan might want was there tonight. We saw a defense that held the Raptors to 18 points below their season scoring average, and also below 100 points. The offense managed to just about reach NBA scoring average, which is a rare accomplishment lately against teams with an above .500 record. The team shot it well, and only Amen played a high number of minutes before tomorrow night’s contest against the Nuggets in Denver.

Things didn’t start all that well, with the Rockets turning the ball over a bunch in the first quarter. What might have been a great defensive showing, at, say, 24 points for the Raptors, was marred by the Rockets allowing 8 Raptor points off turnovers in the period. Fortunately, Toronto couldn’t hold the Rockets down with their own defense, as the Rockets put up an equal 29 points in the first.

The Rockets continued their league average scoring trend in the 2nd quarter, putting up 29 points once again, while holding the Raptors to only 20 points. The key to this wasn’t just making shots, it was cutting the live ball turnovers that plagued the Rockets in the first quarter. There was only one liveball Rockets turnover in the 2nd, by Reed Sheppard, but he immediately atoned by chasing down Jamal Shead for a block. The huge difference in scoring quarter to quarter gives some credence to the turnover theory.

The Raptors made it close in the third quarter, putting up 34 points, much of it from very good shooting from RJ Barrett, defending the honor of Canada, and Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes playing well. also, but in a less Canadian way. The Toronto surge in the third wasn’t turnover driven, they just played better offense and defense than the Rockets, and shot a goodly number of free throws.

The Rockets entered the fourth leading 86-83, but would go on to score 20 of the next 26 points. The Rockets went on to expand that lead to 111-93 with around three minutes remaining, when Toronto waved the red and white flag and pulled their starters. Garbage time was Dick’s moment to shine, but his outburst came too little, too late.

There’s not much to criticize from the Rockets perspective after the somewhat sloppy first quarter. KD lead the way with 29pts on a pristine 12-16FG and 4-5 from three. He filled the stat sheet as well, with 8 rebounds, 2ast, 2stl, 2blk against 2to. He played a low 33 minutes, so hopefully he’ll look as good tomorrow night. Alpie, after an initial rough start, pulled things together for 14pts, 12rbs, 4ast. He still doesn’t look right to me, but perhaps this is as right as he’s going to get, as Clint Capela, no matter how effective, seems locked in at about 14 minutes. One might think 10 rebounds in 13 minutes might earn more playing time, but that feels impossible.

The best Rockets tonight, along with Durant, were Jabari Smith Jr, and Amen Thompson. Jabari looked better, quicker, and more decisive that he has in some time. There weren’t a lot of Dribblin’ Adventures, and he once again seemed to realize, as he does occasionally, that he can just shoot over nearly anyone. Watching Kevin Durant do this all the time must be encouraging at some level. Jaswishy scored 23 on 8-14 shooting, 3-7 from three, and added 4rbs, 2ast, and 2stl. He only recorded one turnover, and that was mostly bad luck.

Amen had a very good game, being both larger, faster, or both, than almost anyone Toronto could throw at him. He attacked the rim almost constantly, and didn’t avoid contact to try to make a tougher shot, as he often does. Thompson had 23 efficient points on 6-10 shooting, and 10-14 on FTs. He added four boards, 6 assists to 3 turnovers, and notched a block. He played 39 minutes, though, and that’s a worry heading to altitude tomorrow night. Amen also made his weekly 3pt shot on one attempt. Perhaps this will all mark the beginning of a more forceful, impactful, offensive trend for Amen.

Of others getting significant minutes, Dorian Finney-Smith played 21 minutes and looked pretty good. He didn’t fill up the box score, but he looked useful, and not lost. His minutes were strongly positive, and that’s a refreshing change. If Finney-Smith has turned a corner, that would be excellent news for the Rockets.

Reed Sheppard had one of his least impactful games in a while. going 2-10, with 7 rebounds, 2 assists, against 4 turnovers. Hopefully he’s past the point where he disappears after a bad game, because the Rockets need his offense, especially, even if they didn’t need it tonight. The topper was Brandon Ingram doing his thing, but managing to only go 3-12, with few free throws. He pulled the Raptors down with a team leading -18. Even Scottie Foster wasn’t horrible tonight.

We can hope we’ll see the Rockets play this way going forward – good defense, coupled by (hopefully!) some emerging offensive organization, and perhaps, resultant good shooting. A more aggressive and effective combo of Jaswishy and Amen racking up free throws on dangerous rim attacks, changes the Rockets outlook considerably.

It was a good night “For The H”, with “The H” being Houston, not Hater.

The Houston Rockets had a gut check game against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday and failed miserably, being dominated by the Spurs, who shot 58 percent from the field, to the tune of a 145-120 San Antonio victory.

The Rockets had no defense, as the Spurs got pretty much whatever they wanted, with Victor Wembenyama leading the way with 29 points, and they also got 23 from Stephon Castle and 20 each from Keldon Johnson and De’Aaron Fox, who also had 10 assists.

As for the Rockets, they got 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks from Kevin Durant on 7-for-12 shooting from the field, as well as 23 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists from Amen Thompson, who was 8-for-15 from the floor.

Reed Sheppard and Jabari Smith Jr. had 17 points each, with Reed going 3-for-10 from deep to go along with 3 rebounds and 3 assists, while Smith had 5 rebounds and 3 assists to round out Houston’s double-digit scorers.

The Rockets showed that they were not quite on par with some of the west’s best, as they lost the season series to San Antonio 3-1. They also fall to the fourth seed in the west with a 39-24 record, on pace for a slightly worse record than last season. If they playoffs ended today, the Rockeys would take on the Los Angeles Lakers, which is an admittedly good matchup for them, but do you have any real faith in the Rockets going anywhere this postseason? I know that I do not.

But it could also get worse. The Rockets are only two games ahead of the Phoenix Suns for a Play-In spot. Falling down to the Play-In is not out of the question.

The Rockets need to find an answer for the shooting discrepency. They were just 8-for-28 from deep, while the Spurs were 21-for-40. That’s almost a 40-point swing on three-point shooting alone. You’re not going to win much basketball that way.

Anyway, the Rockets will return to action on Tuesday with a home game against the Toronto Raptors. That’s a 7pm CST start.

The Houston Rockets were able to rebound from an ugly loss to the Golden State Warriors that featured some horrid play down the stretch by closing out the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night with a strong fourth quarter to come from behind and drop the Blazers 106-99.

Houston used a 23-4 run in the fourth quarter and held the Blazers to many misses in what was a turnaround from the fourth quarter and OT versus the Warriors. Alperen Sengun had 28 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a block while shooting 11-for-15 from the field, while Amen Thompson had 26 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and a block. He barely missed, shooting 11-for-12 from the field.

Kevin Durant had 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, but shot just 8-for-18 from the floor and had 8 turnovers. KD and Sengun combined for 14 turnovers between them. Reed Sheppard finished with 17 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks. He was 3-for-8 from deep as Houston’s only player who hit more than one three-pointer. In fact, the Rockets had a very 90s-esque statline, shooting just 5-for-19 from deep for the game. Reed drew another start with Jabari Smith Jr. back to nursing his sore ankle.

The Rockets outshot Portland 54 percent to 40 percent, but Houston’s 22 turnovers kept the Blazers in the game until the decisive fourth quarter. Portland was led by Jermai Grant with 21 and Jrue Holiday with 20.

The Rockets move to 39-23 on the season and sit firmly in fourth place in the Western Conference. If playoff seeding was today, they’d be taking on the Denver Nuggets in the first round, an interesting matchup to say the least. They are also currently on a 51-win pace, or one game worse than last season’s team.

They’ll return to action on Sunday when they take on their Texas rival San Antonio Spurs.

This one was embarrassing, and painful. It was like watching a chess master play a person who’d maybe heard of chess, but never played it before. Steve Kerr would be in the role of grandmaster, and Ime Udoka the role of someone who just learned of the existence of the wimpy game of chess an hour ago.

The Warriors came into this game barely above .500, with Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Kristaps Porzingis, Moses Moody and Will Richard all out with injuries or illness. Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith were thought to be possible scratches with illness and injury respectively, but no, they played. They played 79 minutes tonight, in fact. Most of those minutes were not especially good. They both looked hindered, as Alpies 8-20, 7ast, 7rb, 5to performance (with a few clutches makes late to improve things) and Jabari’s even more dismal 0-8, 11rb, 2st, 5to both looked like players who were trying to “gut it out” for the sake of the team. At no point in this game did either of them look especially good, or even especially playable, but play they did. It was all very manly.

Arrayed against Ime Udoka’s preferred starting lineup of Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith and Alperen Sengun were arrayed two lauded NBA players, with a combined age of 75 between them in Al Horford and Draymond Green, Guy Santos, De’Anthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski. One might be forgiven for thinking that this would be an easy Rockets win. After all the Rockets had two days off, and were playing at home.

No one considered just how badly the Rockets could be outplayed, outsmarted, and generally outclassed by a better coach, in Steve Kerr and his ragtag Warrior lineup.

This game was in a word, humiliating.

Because the Rockets don’t really run an offense, and because they don’t really change up defenses all that much, because they make few in game adjustments, and seem to have no contingency plan other than “try harder”, the Warriors essentially operated inside Ime Udoka’s “Decision Loop” all night. That means the Warriors generally knew what the Rockets would do before they did it, and how the Rockets would react to essentially every situation. The Rockets were outsmarted at every turn in this game.

The number of layups and wide open shots this largely no-name bunch of Warriors generated was astonishing. Almost no one in the Rockets starting lineup looked good. Kevin Durant looked like a bullfighter without a cape, so often did he get passed by on defense. Alperen Sengun looked sick, and was manhandled by Al Horford. Tari Eason barely seemed present. He managed a pedestrian 4-10 shooting, 5rbs, 2ast. Jabari Smith had maybe one of the worst games I’ve seen him play, just a series of bad decisions on both offense and defense, and nothing he shot looked like going in, except a couple of free throws. Amen Thompson played hard, and offered some good defense at times, but he, too, got beaten by the quick, decisive, attacks mounted over and over.

Durant was 8-16, with 6rbs, 3ast, and 3TOs. He even added 4stls and a block. He’s usually good for scoring, even if his defense isn’t great, and tonight it was far from great.

One might think that an extreme smallball lineup, like the Golden State one tonight, could greatly trouble a very big, non smallball team, with quick, purposeful motion. They did. The Warriors clever attack angles, and their “read and react offense” that somehow can both read, and react, despite the presence of some fairly marginal NBA players, diced the Rockets up. With the Warriors actual starters, this might have been a 30 point loss, instead of an overtime loss. The Rockets solution, their response? There wasn’t one.

On offense the Rockets looked, generally terrible. They barely broke 20 points in the first quarter, They had 27 in the 2nd and 37 in the third, followed by a putrid 19 in the 4th, as they blew an NBA leading 12th fourth quarter lead.

What happened in the third quarter? Reed Sheppard and Clint Capela, basically. Reed played 37 minutes (in an OT game) scored 30 points on 12-19 shooting, 6-12 3pt, 3rbs, 6ast, 3to. He was targeted on defense, but it should be noted, when he played most of his minutes the Rockets outscored the Warriors and took a lead. Capela, despite being required by a law of the universe or something, to play no more than 18 minutes, played 12. This in a game where Sengun and Smith both looked bad. He, along with Reed Sheppard, was +11 in his minutes. The only other Rocket in plus territory was Amen Thompson. This very much matches the eye test from this game. Amen is a superman, and Reed and Capela? They don’t look as tired, frankly.

The Rockets notional offense looks far better with Reed Sheppard in the game, pretty much always at this point. But as the smallest Rocket on the court, he does surrender points, but a point prevented is worth 10 times a point scored, or something or other Ime might have mumbled at some point. Udoka increasingly appears to answer the question “What if you were Thibs, but not an actual basketball savant?”

Anyway, the Rockets almost gave this one away in the 4th, but we saw some clutch baskets from Sengun that dragged this miserable affair to overtime. They then proceeded to get outworked, and out thought, in the OT, as Udoka relied on his dubious starters, and we saw things like the Rockets getting fouled, without a quick shot attempt with the Warriors up three, and an inability to make a deliberate foul with some time remaining. The thinking, and execution, were both awful in OT. Durant missed clutch FTs late, as well, which possibly changed this game from an ugly win, to an ugly loss.

The Rockets have once again failed to reach NBA average scoring against a team with a (barely) winning record. Even with overtime.

I think anyone who reads my writing here regularly knows that I think that the Rockets have basically been winning through sheer talent and effort. That high effort, low strategy, style seems to be catching up with them. The team appeared gassed, flat, slow, despite the extra day off. What’s the Rockets answer for that? Nothing, I’d guess. The Warriors just seemed quicker to do everything, and moreover understood what the Rockets were doing better than the Rockets.

The team plays again tomorrow against the 30-33 Portland Trailblazers. Looks like an easy win, right? So did this game.

The Houston Rockets built up a big lead against the Washington Wizards, and then they had hold on towards the end and a fourth-quarter rally by the Wiz, finishing the game with a 123-118 victory.

The Rockets were led by Alperen Sengun, who finished witgh 32 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and a block, but he did turn the ball over 8 times. Sengun shot 12-for-20 from the field. Houston also got 30 from Kevin Durant, who also had 7 rebounds, but he also racked up 6 turnovers, making 14 between KD and Alpie out of the Rockets 20 total turnovers. .

And this was with good play by a point guard. Reed Sheppard had his first career double-double. He played 42 minutes, finishing with 19 points on 7-for-18 from the floor, 4-for-11 from deep, to go with 7 rebounds, 10 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocks for a monster stat line for Reed. Of course, in the post game, coach Ime Udoka mentioned that he expects Jabari Smith Jr. to be back soon and Reed to head back to the bench, but that’s a convo for another day.

Amen Thompson also pitched in 22 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists on 10-for-15 shooting, to round things out for the Rockets.

The Wizards were led by Bilal Coulibali, who finished with 23 points, and Sharife Cooper who had 21. Trae Young was also ejected from the Wizards bench, while Tari Eason was ejected for the Rockets. That gave Dorian Finney-Smith for Houston 27 minutes of playing time. He had 5 points and 6 boards on 2-for-6 shooting, 1-for-1 from deep.

The Rockets move to 38-22 on the season and still sit in third place in the Western Conference, while the Wizards fall to 16-44 on the year. The Rockets are now off until Thursday, when they will return to action against their arch nemesis the Golden State Warriors.

Signs of life against another Florida team might have been premature. The Rockets were largely outsmarted today by the Heat. You might say Miami nightlife is undefeated, and that playing at 3:30 in the afternoon was never going to work out well for the young Rockets, but there might have been a little more on display today than that. Or a lot less.

What I mean by that is, over the Rockets past 20 games, roughly 1/4 of an NBA season, and 1/3 of the games they’ve played so far, the team has an NBA average number of points or above, about 114 points, exactly five times. One was an overtime game they lost to the 76ers. But let’s count it. That means the Rockets did not reach NBA average scoring in 75% of those games. The other teams against whom they exceeded average, just average, scoring: Indiana, New Orleans, Utah and Sacramento. Those are all terrible teams, two are tanking deliberately and those teams have managed 65 combined wins this season, with none of them above 18.

Looked at another way, the Rockets have managed to break NBA average scoring exactly one time, or in 5% of their games, in the past 20, against a decent NBA opponent. Once.

That’s, frankly, inadequate offense.

You might want to blame this on the players, and to an extent it’s true, I think. You might want to blame it on the style of play, and the utter lack of offensive structure or purpose. I’d apportion that blame 25% Players 75% Coaching and Approach. Your view may differ and you are most welcome to it. There’s no guarantee I’m right.

The most positive thing for the Rockets long term, though, is that I am right. If the players are the heart of the problem, the future of the Rockets as a legitimate contender is in deep trouble. Unless more development occurs. It’s hard to see offensive development at the moment, as many of the young Rockets have flatlined, or declined as offensive players under Ime Udoka. You can blame them for their own decline, that’s certainly one approach. One I disagree with.

Why was 20 year old Alperen Sengun a more efficient player under Stephen Silas of all people? In Silas’ last season Sengun had a 60 True Shooting Percentage. It declined slightly in Udoka’s first season to 59% (rounding up both times). Now it seems stuck at 55% over the past two seasons, and currently falling. Why isn’t a maturing player getting better? Character flaw? Laziness? What changed? It’s a general rule of thumb that players tend to get better until around age 26-28. That isn’t happening. It’s not happening with most of them. Why?

It’s easy enough to blame the players, until you realize that even with one of the all time scoring greats, playing very well, the Rockets, as a team, have not broken average scoring against any but essentially the absolute weakest of NBA teams for 95% of the past 20 games, amounting to 1/3 of their season. Is the whole team at fault, individually, as bad players? Or is it something else? Because that’s simply woeful offensive output. One player playing more hasn’t fixed it. Why? In my view, because the problem is systemic.

On to today’s version of “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”.

The Rockets play two games against Miami every season. You can almost set your clock to them being outsmarted by the Heat in one of those games. Lately, despite a recent Finals appearance, Miami has been good, not great, or even below average. That’s something you might very well blame on their players, or rather the talent level, as they are never poorly coached. But they are awake. Miami’s front office, and their head coach Eric Spoelstra,seem capable of seeing the team’s flaws, and taking steps to fix them.

Miami hired former Memphis lead assistant, and Ja Morant casualty, Noah LaRoche to teach them his motion, largely pick and roll free, offense. This, to me, was Spoelstra’s recognition that his approach simply wasn’t producing enough points. Has it worked? In a word, yes. Miami is averaging above the NBA average of 114 points per game, at 119. Last season, with essentially the same crew, minus norm Powell, they scored 110 on average. It might be just due to Powell, but seeing how many times that offense mismatched the Rockets without a pick, I’m dubious. In my view, due to positive coaching action, their offense is far better. A talent problem still remains if a team’s best player is Bam Adebayo.

I would argue that Miami boasts a lot less talent than the Rockets. Yet, once again, the Rockets got outsmarted and outplayed by the Heat. Sure, the Rockets have injuries, and it’s fair to mention it. But in the 4th quarter the Rockets simply got stonewalled by a zone defense. Again. They had no answer except to charge into 2-4 defenders and put up a terrible shot, over and over and over. This lead to predictably bad results, minus HoF player Kevin Durant, who took, but made, similarly awful shots.

There are ways to beat a zone. Good high school teams have zone buster sets, and attacks. The Rockets appear to lack any such thing. Still if the zone defense is good, and Miami’s is very good, and mobile, then there are certain things that must happen to break it.

One is, get behind it with baseline cuts, and player movement without the ball into the back of the zone, and either shoot, or pass it out when the zone reacts by converging at the rim.

Nope, the Rockets didn’t do that. Nobody moves.

Another is to overload the zone, and either find a screen for a shot in the overload, or whip the ball back to the non overloaded side that could be open.

No. Again, no player movement from the Rockets, they just stand, “spaced out” watching a one on four attack. Why the team stands around like that, as there isn’t a player really capable of a drive and kick attack most of the time (I include Reed, Amen AND Fred VanVleet in this assessment) baffles me.

Another is to set up a distributor in the middle of the paint, and have players cut into or out of the zone. The idea is to force coverage of the player in the paint, and then catch the zone out of position with passes out, or attacks by that player.

Nah. That speaks to purpose. Of recognizing a likely problem, and having a solution ready. Miami’s “go to” change up is always a zone defense of some sort. The waited around in a close game, until the 4th quarter, then went to it and choked the Rockets out. The Rockets managed a losing 22 points in the 4th.

Another is to attack the rim, and then kick the ball to shooters, or cutters, having, again, pulled the zone out of shape and forced help.

Well, the Rockets certainly attacked into the teeth of the zone. They didn’t pass out, and no one moved, cut, or followed those attacks. They stood around waiting for offensive rebounds, as if those, rather than baskets, were the goal. (There are other zone breaking methods, of course, but rest assured, we saw none of those, either.)

The good news is that the Rockets lost their lead in the 3rd quarter, late. So they did not add a 12th blown 4th quarter lead to their already commanding 11 blown 4th quarter leads. Nice to be far out ahead of the pack of literally any good NBA team in something, right? (Pelicans are next with 9 such blown leads. The average is about 4.)

This looked like most other Rockets losses. The defense holds yet another opponent below NBA average points, but loses because the Rockets themselves can barely break 100 points against all but the worst of the NBA.

I wish I had more sunshine for you, but that’s what I’m seeing. With no change in sight, and no recognition, at least publicly, that change is needed. The Rockets have enough raw talent to hang around third in the Western Conference. But they could be so much more.

This game felt like the Rockets season in microcosm. Amen Thompson returned from being out in the previous game, and the Rockets traveled to Orlando for the second game of a back to back. Orlando was at home, and last played Tuesday in Los Angeles. After a game of beating the woeful Kings easily with a more spacing friendly lineup, the Rockets were back to the usual, with Amen as the point guard.

The Rockets size and athleticism do them much less good against a team like Orlando. The Magic can counter the Rockets size and, mostly, athleticism at every position. Like the Rockets, the Magic struggle with offensive execution, and the addition of a single good shooter, Desmond Bane, hasn’t fixed the problem. Like the Rockets, great things were expected of the Magic this season, with the addition of Bane, similar to the Rockets with Durant. Some might have favored the Magic’s young talent over that on the Rockets, in the preseason. Again, like the Rockets, that talent has somewhat duplicative skill sets, and most of them require getting into the paint to be most effective.

Like the Rockets, a certain inflexibility of ideas regarding how to play, and further, a lack of shooting and spacing beyond Desmond Bane, has held Orlando back, even when healthy. Also similar to the Rockets, injuries have bent the initial concept of the team out of shape this season. Both are teams with a defense first (last and only?) identity, and neither has done much to address that issue, beyond hoping a new addition will fix it, while doing everything else much as before.

You’re probably wondering about the game, I don’t blame you. I very much believe the mirror image conceit is important in what follows.

The Old Look Rockets did not exactly light up the Orlando Magic with their Amen, Tari, Durant, Jabari, Sengun lineup. Considering potential spacing and general offense issues, one might look at this lineup and think “Wow, that’s all forwards, and one center. Sure, you can SAY Amen and Tari are guards, but they aren’t. Only Durant is a shooter anyone must respect and must go out to guard. Even so, Durant prefers to operate in the paint mostly. And Sengun never gets a pass made to him in the paint. He has to get to the rim somehow, from the 3pt line, every time. You know what I’d do? What everyone else does, harass Durant and pack the paint.”

Guess what? That’s what Orlando did. It worked. The Rockets lost the first quarter 22-29, while looking, frankly, dreadful on offense. Sure, it’s bad to surrender points, but it’s worse to surrender them and not score, to boot. It was very much a lather, rinse, repeat, no movement, spacing for a drive and kick that rarely happens, to supposed shooters nobody comes out to guard.

So, in true Udokan fashion, the Rockets tightened up on defense. And they somehow got even worse on offense. Orlando only scored 24 points. That’s great defense. The Rockets? They scored 21. That is simply losing NBA offense.

Kevin Durant looked, frankly, tired, maybe old, and why not? He’s a 37 year old player, playing big minutes routinely on the second night of a B2B on the road. Sengun couldn’t operate, the shooters you’d want to take 3pt shots weren’t taking them. Orlando wasn’t shooting threes at a great rate at that point, but they were taking, at one point, three times as many.

The score at halftime was a Wayback Machine 54-43. The Rockets were On Pace to score 86 points. That’s a losing score most nights in 1994. The battle of inept offenses continued, until 5:18 remaining in the 3rd quarter, with Orlando leading 76-57. What follows next was a strong an argument for shooting, for spacing, for point guard play, basically for the idea of offense in basketball, as I’ve ever seen. Of course the Rockets had to play good defense to make that happen, but somehow, despite the presence of Reed Sheppard, Kevin Durant and Clint Capela, that’s exactly what they did.

At 5:18 remaining, Reed Sheppard came in for Amen Thompson. Clint Capela came in for Alperen Sengun. Tari Eason stayed in the game, and we saw, finally, Josh Okogie take the place of Dorian Finney-Smith (and Jabari Smith).

The Rockets would go on the score the next 21 points. In roughly 4 minutes. Kevin Durant, Reed Sheppard, and Josh Okogie would score all those points, off a far better spaced Rockets offense. Most of those points, unlike earlier, were assisted. Most of them by Sheppard.

At 1:15 remaining in the third, with the Rockets taking a 78-76 lead, the Magic finally scored again. After that it would be a back and forth affair. Durant and a returning Sengun lead the Rockets down the stretch against a Magic team that suddenly found shooting with deadline acquisition Jevon Carter and Desmond Bane, who was amazing tonight. Jabari Smith returned, and with 9 minutes remaining, took, and made, his first three point attempt of the game. Mostly though it was the Rockets playing great defense, an energized Durant splashing tough shots, and finally, Reed Sheppard making two big threes in the last two minutes. Also credit to Josh Okogie. The Rockets finally put him on Desmond Bane, and he helped close him down. Okogie has been everything we hoped DFS would be, including making 3pt shots. It’s baffling he hasn’t played much lately.

I really can’t think of a better example of a game to emphasize the points I’ve been trying to make here. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that spacing, provided by two shooters defenses must respect, and point guard play turned this game, and brought the Rockets up to NBA average scoring in a bit less than a quarter and a half. Remember, they were on a pace to score 86 points, playing The Ime Way.

The Rockets basically have to play perfect defense to win the Ime Way. Why not play very good defense, and good offense, instead of requiring perfection? It might look like the Magic had a scoring outburst, but again, they were under NBA average. The Rockets really didn’t run an offense per se, the spacing just gave players like Durant, like Sengun, the space to be their best. It gave players like Okogie and Smith looks they can make.

Life doesn’t have to be as hard as it has been for the Rockets. Why does it seem like they only play reasonable offense when they have almost no other option?

Tonight KD played a real Game of Two Halves. In the end he scored 40 points, on 14-28 shooting. He was 2 for 10 from three point range, and that’s where maybe we saw tired legs. He hardly seemed to miss late, and showed why he was one of the greats of all time. But late game? Durant benefited from spacing, and from passing to him. The difference between a swarmed, harassed, KD, and one with room to work was enormous.

Sheppard scored 20 points on 7-11 shooting, in 31 minutes. He added 3 boards, 4 assists, 2 steal, 2 blocks, against a turnover. He’s far perfect, he’s still essentially a 21 year old rookie PG in terms of minutes. Judging him like an established veteran is lunacy. But he is simply the only player on the roster that can provide what they need. The only other player, besides Durant, to give them any shooting gravity, to take defenses out of their packline defense, essentially, and give both Alpie and KD a bit of room to operate.

Maybe it’s also time to stop being stubborn about lineups that cannot provide space to operate for Rockets players on offense? Are they THAT much better defensively? Or at all? The scoring for Orlando seemed about the same either way. What changed was the Rockets offense.

The difference between the Reed lineup late, and everything before it, was that stark. It seems blasphemous to suggest that Amen maybe shouldn’t be on the court in certain situations, but that’s exactly what’s happening to his brother in Detroit. It’s very difficult to simply defend your way to a comeback. Scoring is required. You just can’t have a player in a guard role that just can’t shoot it, combined with a non shooting center, and two other offensive players that simply haven’t earned the respect of defenses, for good reason. It just doesn’t work in the pace and space, three point shooting, modern NBA.

You may have another viewpoint, and this is just one game, but the Rockets didn’t even run some sort of offense late. It was the same old motionless, hanging around the 3pt line stuff, just with a PG who could shoot it, and one defenses must respect for that shooting.