Houston’s defense once again leads the way to victory.
The Houston Rockets have now won four games in a row. It may not seem like much, but each win has only moved Houston further ahead of Golden State, and closer to Denver near the top of the West standings. Most importantly though, the Rockets got the dub against the Suns in what felt like a one sided game almost all night long.
Beginning the game with a starting lineup that featured the returning Fred VanVleet who’d been sidelined for 16 of the past 17 games due to an ankle injury, Houston immediately felt his presence. Knocking down his signature shot, an open top of the key three pointer, FVV soon after finished a tough reverse layup, showing what we’d missed out on for over a month. At the end of the game though, it’d be VanVleet who finished with ten points to go along with four assists and steals on 4/9 shooting from the field. Not a bad performance whatsoever, and better yet, the turnover and ball handling issues we’d seen of late from Houston weren’t so much a concern with Fred on the court.
As for the other starters, it was overall a very good night for the Rockets. Dillon Brooks per usual did his job on the defensive end and continued his good shooting on the offensive end. Having eight points on 3/3 shooting in just the first quarter was a big help to what ended up being a 19 point outing while shooting 8/14 on the night.
Tari Eason also had himself a solid outing, recording his fifth double double on the season with a 15 point, ten rebound game. He also shot pretty solid from the field, going 6/13 and 2/5 from beyond the arc. The fourth quarter was where he really shined though, scoring each seven points and rebounds all while helping close out the game in the Rockets’ final run to pull away. All in all, Eason was definitely one of the best players on the court for Houston all night long.
Alperen Sengun put up another great outing, going a perfect 7/7 from the field, and then 5/6 from the free throw line in route to a 20 point game. He added on four rebounds and seven assists as well, including two no look passes, one being in transition off the bounce to Dillon Brooks. The only issue from Al-P tonight was the five turnovers, but seeing as they never truly impacted the score whatsoever, I’m not any bit concerned at all.
And for the the last, but certainly not least of the starting unit, Jalen Green. First off, let me start by saying, when Jalen can actually get a call for him, he’s extremely difficult to defend. His speed and athleticism makes him a hard enough cover, but when the whistle is going in his favor, good things happen. Against Phoenix, he dropped 29 points on 8/16 from the field, 3/6 from three (including one over Bol Bol), and a great 10/11 from the free throw line. He also limited turnovers and packed the rest of the statsheet with seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals. After a couple down performances these last few games for Green, this was definitely a simple reminder that with good officiating and FVV running point, he’s a much better player.
As for the bench, there wasn’t much production in this one from them. Apart of that reason could be due to the mini “wrestling match” between Steven Adams and Mason Plumlee in which both men were ejected from the game for, but even besides that, there just wasn’t much. Jabari Smith Jr. struggled from beyond the arc, going 0/6 and only scoring eight points, and Aaron Holiday couldn’t get anything consistent going for him. the best bench player was probably Jock Landale who helped Houston out in the fourth quarter a good bit.
All things considered from this one though, it was really just the Rockets’ night from tipoff. Not once did it truly seem like they were in any trouble, and if they ever were, their actions didn’t show it. Next up, Houston’s got the 33-34 Dallas Mavericks at home on Friday, a game that should be won when looking at it on paper.