Rockets See The Bear – Another Day of Christmas
The Rockets day began badly, with Jabari Smith somehow or other breaking his left hand in shootaround. It didn’t get better by the end.
The Rockets started out the game missing Amen Thompson (suspension), Jabari Smith Jr. (broken hand from shoot around), and Tari Eason (mystery leg problem that seems almost better, and then, nope not better at all). They ended the day, and the game missing a lot of shots.
The final score was 109-86.
Let’s talk about that 109 opponent finish. 109 is pretty much an average NBA score. The Celtics didn’t go berserk scoring the ball, though it might have seemed that way. They scored just under the league average amount of points. From the Rockets perspective tonight, though, 110 points seems like climbing K2 in flip-flops. Technically possible, though foolishly unlikely.
86 points. That’s not many. That’s the sort of scoring Jeff Van Gundy used to cherish, back in the day, as long as the opponent had scored, say, 79 points. 86 points just isn’t going to get it done, in pretty much any game, in the modern NBA. Tonight’s output against Boston ranks as the 12th lowest team scoring output of the 2024-25 season. It’s not likely to be remembered for being bad, but it’s… still not good.
Certainly the Rockets were missing key pieces, but more than that, they were missing shots. Boston shot 39 3pt attempts, low by their standards. The Rockets shot 36. Boston made 19 of those 39 attempts, good for nearly 49%. The Rockets made 10 of 36 three point attempts, “good” for 28%. If, in some parallel universe the Rockets made threes at the same rate as Boston they…would have won the game 110-109 (assuming all sorts of other things).
That’s how difficult it is to beat Boston, themselves missing Jaylen Brown (and resting Al Horford).
The Rockets have seen the bear, that is, the team that won the last NBA title going away. The Celtics are not just the bear, they’ve set the bar. The Rockets aren’t over that bar, they aren’t particularly near getting over it at the moment. If you can hold one of the league’s best offenses to a league average score, but still lose by 23, it’s probably not just your opponents defense at work.
Still, watching basically every player on Boston seemingly effortlessly drain 3pt attempts makes me wonder what shooting instructor wasn’t included with Ime’s crack team of shooting instructors from Boston? Was it Joe Mazulla himself? Someone else? It’d be cool to have a deep belief the Rockets would cash their open threes, because they honestly had a lot of them tonight.
This game was close, a couple of times, before Boston pulled away by scoring 8pts in a row, on three consecutive shots, or something like that. In larger sense, the game was never that close at all. Between Boston’s stifling defense, and easy shot making, the Rockets didn’t seem to have much chance.
What chance they did have wasn’t helped by an erratic, or in Dillon and Cam’s case plain bad, scoring nights from Alperen Sengun, Dillon Brooks, Fred VanVleet and Cam Whitmore.
Jalen Green was pretty much the lone bright spot scoring, and also, defense, wise. He went 10-21, but 5-13 from 3pt range, 3rbs, 1ast, and 2 spectacular blocks. Jalen really ought to have notched a few more assists, as he’s generally making good passes, but his teammates can’t cash them in. Usually when Jalen plays well, the Rockets cruise. Not against the Celtics.
The homestand might have been going just fine if the Rockets had closed the deal with Minnesota or Miami. As it is, they’re sitting at 1-3 with a surging Lakers team coming into town Sunday.
At least Amen Thompson will be back from suspension, and taking Jabari Smith’s place, and moving Jeff Green back to the bench (though Jeff filled in admirably). Who knows, we might even see Tari Eason play basketball again one day?
In the meantime, the gulf between the odds-on favorite to repeat as NBA Champions and the Rockets remains wide.
If you do want a bit of positive news, well, the Rockets have really only gotten their asses kicked twice this season. Tonight’s game, and the first OKC game. Other than that, they’ve been in the game, at worst, even if they ended up losing it. That’s honestly a very good sign.
PS- Sorry about getting behind on Twelve Takes of Christmas. Things come up in life, but we’re not to Twelfth Night yet! A holiday comeback is possible!