Same old song.
Welp. That may be all she wrote, folks. The Houston Rockets postseason outlook became very bleak following their 133-110 loss to the Golden State Warriors tonight. The result is eerily reminiscent to previous matchups with the the Dubs as Houston has lost 13 straight to the team from The Bay.
Houston never led in this one in what should be considered the most deflating loss of the season. It started early as Klay Thompson got off to a sizzling start and from that point on it looked like the Rockets were in trouble. The Warriors kept hitting shots and the Rockets couldn’t connect from deep. Once Houston did start making a few, it appeared that they were trading twos for threes, and that’s never a great situation to be in on a basketball court.
Thompson went on to score 29 points as he was joined by his Splash Brother, Steph Curry, who also pitched in 29. Jabari Smith Jr. led the way for the Rockets with 24 points, but other than that, help was few and far between.
The rest of the starting lineup only combined for 39 points and Jalen Green was benched for the fourth quarter again in a game that essentially decided if the season would be prolonged. Green accounted for 13 of those 39 points to go along with 7 assists. Fred VanVleet posted 10 points, 9 assists, and 5 steals, but even the turnovers that the Rockets generated couldn’t get them close enough into striking range.
If the Rockets had one potential saving grace during this game it would have been the Warriors’ coughing the ball up 18 times, but it didn’t translate in the ways one would hope.
It also didn’t help that the Rockets had no answer for Trayce Jackson-Davis as he poured in 20 points on an ungodly amount of shots at or above the rim. I’m not sure what to say between TJD going off and the Rockets not being able to handle a double-team.
Maybe I’m being too negative. Am I? You tell me. The result I can live with. It’s the way that happened that annoys me most.
The Rockets being .500 at this point in the season is proof of serious progress, I admit it. The glimpses of excellence from March probably raised expectations, but it’s been awhile to be fair. Oh well.
The Rockets’ play-in hopes are still alive in technical terms. There’s still a chance with six games remaining in the season and four games back in the win column. However, you’re probably huffing paint if you think the team that’s now won six in a row (Golden State) is going to lose out, and the team that has lost three in a row (Houston) will win out, especially after this game.
We shall see.