It may be too late to impact the final rankings, but the Houston Rockets found a certain determination on the road that they lacked for most of the season.
With their 103-101 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, the Rockets extended their road winning streak to four games, an exciting stretch considering Houston, who will host the game. Wizards of Washington Thursday, had won five road games earlier this season.
Against the Spurs, the Rockets won without their leading scorer and rebounder, center Alperen Sengun, who suffered a severely sprained right ankle and bruised knee in the same leg Sunday against the Sacramento Kings. Houston was also without rookie wing Cam Whitmore (knee), whose scoring off the bench had been a boon to the Rockets’ inconsistent offense.
Instead of giving in to their attrition, the Rockets displayed a perseverance that has been more common of late. Houston had to fend off late rallies in Phoenix and Sacramento before starting again against the Spurs. The road win at Portland at the start of their three-game road trip allowed the Rockets to mount a second-half rally from a double-digit deficit.
“We showed a lot of resilience,” Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. said. “A lot of ups and downs, but we stayed together, we stayed with it. I feel like that has been our theme the last few games, staying together and playing hard throughout the game and trusting each other.”
Without Sengun, who would be out for the remainder of the season, the road will remain difficult for the Rockets, who entered Wednesday 4 1/2 games behind the Golden State Warriors for the final Western Conference play-in spot. The next-man-up snap was invoked after the win in San Antonio, but with their rotation depleted, the Rockets will have to dig a little deeper into their bench and rely on reserves whose previous playing time had been limited.
“We’ve been ready for months,” Rockets reserve center Jock Landale said. “Credit to all the guys for staying mentally sharp and helping each other out.”
The Wizards hadn’t had a winning streak longer than two games this season, but after back-to-back wins over the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, Washington looked poised to reach that relative milestone against the injury-ravaged Memphis Grizzlies, Tuesday.
Instead, the Wizards struggled to a 42-point first half and trailed by 25 at intermission before an unsuccessful second-half rally resulted in a 109-point road loss. 97. The loss kept the Wizards in the cellar of the Eastern Conference and served as the latest indication of this season’s loss for a young team that has struggled to chart any semblance of a positive direction.
“We have to own it. It’s a collective thing,” Wizards interim coach Brian Keefe said. “I’ll be the one because I’m the leader of the group; I’ll take it myself. But we have to look at it as a collective unit that we need to be better.”
–Field level media
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