Our Molecules Are Agitated
The Rockets started this game well, but were eventually ground down by Miami’s offense, and sudden burst of great 3pt shooting, after a mostly hapless first half in that regard. We found the limits of a Rockets roster already without Alperen Sengun, and Tari Eason, that lost Amen Thompson for this game. The Rockets are close to being a good team, but they aren’t there yet.
Miami, whatever jokes we (rightfully) make about the extreme self-congratulation of an actual “Heat Culture” basketball court, and their own devoted mythmaking, is a good team. They probably have the best coach in the NBA. Their players are well-schooled. They tend to be able to do everything at a decent level. A Miami Rando is typically a better player than the average NBA rando.
Their coaching, veteran roster, and general skill level means that whatever weakness your team has, Miami will tend to be able to exploit it. They lose mostly when their cleverness and execution is simply overwhelmed by talent, or size, or they have a lot of injuries, or Jimmy Butler is not super engaged.
The Rockets talent is probably greater than that of the Heat, but its not developed, and nowhere near peak ages for the key Rockets. The Rockets size is lacking as well, without Sengun, and without Amen Thompson to be a defensive Swiss army knife, and insane rebounder.
Miami’s actions lead to consistent good looks at the basket, especially when the Rockets one center, Jock Landale, was switching on defense. The Heat shot nearly 50% from 2pt range, and their looks were easy. Their motion game was working early, and when the Rockets finally cut off access to the rim late, their drive and kick lead to them making 3pt shots they’d missed earlier in the game.
The Rockets offense, on the other hand, was back to looking difficult. What Miami did was interesting, defensively. They played very physically on the perimeter (which apparently they’re just allowed to do) and when any action headed for the basket, basically the whole team would collapse into the paint, more or less daring the drive to kick to an open shot. If the Rocket driving the basket waited too long to kick it out, they’d have basically four Heat defenders around them, making both the shot, and pass out, difficult.
They also stymied the Rockets with nearly a half of zone defense. The Rockets truly need to be better about breaking zones, and having actions, movement, across and into the zone to bend it out of shape, rather than just relying on shooting, or penetration.
We could talk about individual performances, but nothing was especially instructive, or new, except for the fact that Jock Landale almost certainly should have started and played heavy minutes tonight.
These are all going to be matters for next season, though. The Rockets won’t be playing in even the 10th seed play in game this year.
The final part of the Rockets schedule is and has been, tough, as tough in some respects as the schedule during the 11 game winning streak was easy. That is, mostly good teams fighting for playoff position, as opposed to mostly bad teams, with a few good ones leavened into the mixture.
There’s no reason to be anything but encouraged by this team, though. The key players are simply young enough to be expected to improve, significantly, over the next few seasons. It would be a different story if the heart of the team was 28, instead of 22, but it isn’t.
It’s probably for the best in some ways, that the Rockets have learned to separate themselves from bad teams. They aren’t in the Tank Zone of the NBA anymore. Now they have to learn to beat good ones.