Lost It Late on FTs
That was a painful loss.
It was painful, because it needn’t have happened. It was painful because it was to the constantly self-congratulating Memphis Grizzlies. It was painful because it, in my view, wouldn’t have happened if Memphis had Ja Morant, but the Rockets had Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr.
Yes, the Rockets weren’t just missing Sengun, they were missing their best defender at PF. Dillon Brooks played up tonight against Jaron Jackson Junior and eventually fouled out. I have dubious thoughts about many of those fouls, but the 6th foul was actually a foul on Brooks. Jabari Smith, as tall, and longer, than Jackson would be a far better matchup, with Brooks or Eason taking some minutes.
Adding Ja Morant to Memphis couldn’t possibly have made them more effective in the paint, off drives, and constantly, off the glass, often awkwardly. Memphis
The Rockets set up their defense to contain Memphis’ 3pt shooting, and they largely did. Memphis shot 9-28 from 3pt range. Unfortunately this left the Rockets open to drives from Desmond Bane (not too surprising), the aforementioned Jackson, and…Luke Kennard?
Yes, Luke Kennard might have played the best game of his career, against Amen Thompson, largely. He went 9-15 overall, 3-6 from three, and despite this success, complained a lot. Amen seemed to want to get right up on Kennard at the 3pt line, leaving him vulnerable to a drive where Kennard turned his shoulder into Thompson, and drove slowly and sedately, to the basket for some sort of shot that seemed to always go in.
Amen is breaking out as a star, but he’s still a 2nd year player, who totally roughly as many minutes played last season as he’s played this season. He had a good night, that might have been great, if he’d finished better at the rim. Amen had 21pts on 7-15 shooting 7-9FT, 7rbs, 4ast, 1stl, 4blk. Unfortunately, Thompson blew at least three looks at the basket, and was joined by…pretty much all the Rockets, who did the same.
Tonight really pointed up just how much the Rockets rely upon Sengun to make something positive happen when the offense stalls out, as it did for essentially the last six minutes of the fourth quarter, when the Rockets scored basically 4 points, and lost the game.
Jalen Green had a good first half, and rough second half. He finished the game 8-21 overall, but 5-10 from three point range. Despite rookie Jalen Wells’ good defense, it wasn’t Green’s shooting from deep that hurt the Rockets, it was his missing at the rim, getting caught in no-mans land near the basket without a plan, or simply getting caught short of the rim, not finding a pass, and taking a bad shot. He managed 6 rebounds, 5 assists, against 2 turnovers, so while it might have seemed like a terrible night overall, Jalen was fairly helpful.
Dillon Brooks also had a good night on offense, going 9-17 for 22 points, 3-7 from 3pt range. Tari Eason plays like his hair is on fire, but still can’t finish at the rim. He went 6-12, but it really should have been 9-12. He did make a three, and grabbed 12 boards in 30 minutes, as Brooks sat a good bit with foul trouble.
Steven Adams played his most minutes of the season, 23, and had a solid night with 11pts, 10rebs, 3ast, 1stl and went 3-3 from the FT line. Jock Landale played fairly well, but he really can’t stand in for Sengun offensively, because he just doesn’t have the hands for it, the way the Rockets offense tends to work.
Unfortunately the man with the ball in his hands late ended up being Fred VanVleet. Fred had one of his bad nights, going 4-12 overall and 2-8 from three. Fred also turned it over late, and missed a fairly open potential game winner. In the last two victories, Fred played better because he was very much the Rockets fourth option, after Sengun, Green, and Amen. Tonight he was basically first or second option, particularly late, and his scoring simply doesn’t hold up in that role on the vast majority of such occasions.
In the end, this is a one point loss, a game the Rockets could have, and perhaps should have, won. The game seemed to mean vastly more to the Grizzlies, than the Rockets, who were hoping to conclude a perfect road trip, and couldn’t quite manage it.
The Rockets won the series series 3-1 over Memphis, so the Grizzlies could not take 2nd place in the West on a tied record with the Rockets, they would have to exceed the Rockets record. This might prove difficult, given the Rockets schedule turning somewhat easier, and Memphis’ turning decidedly more difficult.