The Rockets’ purple-red patch continues to grow. That’s now nine wins in a row. Frankly, it wasn’t planned, but it’s very welcome and has thrust the Rockets into a more interesting conversation than previously. The Rockets are now half a game behind Golden State for 10th play-in place. While, again, play-in isn’t any sort of long-term aspiration for these Rockets, it’s a great short-term goal for Phase II, something the team can work toward. next to the wave pool. This short-term objective, from phase II, is now also entirely possible to achieve.
Tonight there was a lineup with two “R”s for Portland. Rookies’N’Randos. Only one Portland starter graced its roster, rookie Scoot Henderson. We’ll talk about that later.
The others were rookies, hikers and sometimes rookie hikers. Give them credit, they played hard and tried to win this one.
Portland’s first plan was apparently to “do nothing but layups.” The Rockets’ song was “Miss Pretty Much Everything and Let Portland Just Stroll Into The Paint.” Portland took an early nine-point lead. The Rockets looked the other way, missing easy shots, playing little defense and, in the case of Fred VanVleet, finding themselves and staying in trouble. As expected, Jock Landale, starting tonight in place of the suspended Jabari Smith Jr., didn’t miss a shot and scored 15 points in the first quarter to stabilize things. The Rockets end up leading by 3 points, at 28 to 25.
The second quarter was essentially similar. This time without Jock Landale scoring 15 points, the Trailblazers went into the half with four points while the Rockets managed a dismal 19 points in the second. Portland was playing hard, the Rockets were lacking everything, and this one looked frustrating.
I suspected Ime Udoka would give a rousing halftime speech for the Rockets, and maybe he did. The team came out with a lot more energy and started attacking the rim. Perhaps a turning point came on a Jalen Green steal that led to a blazing dunk, where Jalen appeared to simply turn on the afterburners and fly to the basket.
Jalen didn’t really have a good game, overall, but no Rocket, except Landale, really did well. The team was able to simply outplay and execute the rookies, randos, and rookie randos at the end. A group of rookies and guys trying to catch up, like Delano Banton, who seems like an odd but effective player, wasn’t going to hold back a motivated Rockets team forever. These types of players generally have NBA-level skills or attributes, but not enough to really be more than bench players on a team that isn’t deliberately losing.
How deliberately? Tonight, Portland had three of its key players out with “tendinitis” and one with “hamstring soreness.” We can all hope that they will fully recover from these devastating tank-related injuries.
The only likely future NBA starters on the Blazers’ roster were Scoot Henderson and Ryan Rupert (and who knows, maybe Banton can be the SF Portland has long dreamed of). Scoot is very athletic and has good maneuverability, but he just can’t get to the rim at the moment without a combination of push-ups and shoulder barges. When he does, he can shoot defenders. Scoot is strong and powerfully built, so when those aggressive moves/offensive fouls are allowed, he can score. If they’re called, well, he should have fouled tonight, but he finished with five fouls in 25 minutes. This can be difficult for any beginning PG in general, but trying to manage this collection of players, even if they fight hard, is a lot to ask.
The Rockets, already short on Sengun and Whitmore (and Eason), feared that not having Jabari Smith would be the Jenga block that brought down the Rockets’ victory tower. Not quite, but mostly because of who Portland is right now. The Rockets didn’t play well tonight and really missed Jabari’s defense (and offense). We had a clinic on how many defensive problems the second year F/C (yes, I said it) solves. These basic drives and inside passes are much more difficult for opponents with Jabs nearby. It’s not easy to shoot it either.
Regardless, Jalen and Jock steadied the ship, and while it wasn’t Jalen’s most efficient play, sometimes someone, anyone, has to score. He went 9-26 and 4-12 from 3-point range, but a lot of those missed shots were decent attempts that bounced, rolled, etc. He added six rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block tonight, and really led the Rockets to victory.
The Rockets face a sterner test Wednesday night in OKC as they seek ten straight wins.
