The Rockets had lost their last 11 games on the road coming into tonight’s contest with New Orleans. Their last road win was in January, as they lost every single game on the road for the month of February, and continued that trend for three more games in March.
The Pelicans are viewed as a bad team, and their record very much indicates they are. I’d suggest that much of NOLA’s struggles are due more to devastating injuries than a terrible team.
Of their supposed starters at the beginning of the season: Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones and Zion Williamson, those five players have played a combined 140 games out of a possible 303 games. (I removed possible games for Ingram after the February 6th trade deadline.) That’s a robust 46% of games missed for presumptive starters, or at worst crucial players.
Even with those losses of games played, the Pelicans are relatively healthy (minus Jones, and Murrary). Zion Williamson is playing, and generally playing well. Trey Murphy, arguably (by me) a better player than Brandon Ingram has helped their lineup. Yves Missi, Kelly Olynyk and Karlo Matcovic have been perfectly decently players in the NOLA “bigs” slots after Zion. The Pelicans were 5-5 in their last ten games before tonight, the same as the Rockets.
The Rockets did not start the game well. At all. The listlessness, and lack of effort on defense that had pervaded the last month, really, of Rockets basketball was present, as was a lack of coherence on offense, as well as simply missing open looks. At one point in the first quarter, early, the Rockets trailed by 12. Trey Murphy scored 12 in the quarter on perfect shooting from the field and the line. The Rockets weren’t closing the lane, and weren’t closing out on shooters. New Orleans has a number of generally good shooters. The aforementioned Murphy, CJ McCollum, Jose Alvardo, Jordan Hawkins and even Kelly Olynyk can all shoot the three. Not guarding them usually leads to trouble, and it did tonight.
Greater effort from the Rockets in the 2nd quarter lead to better results, at least on defense. The Rockets held New Orleans to only 25 points in the second, but scored but 25 themselves. Still, they trailed only 3 points at the half, so that was a decent recovery from a poor start.
The second half saw a far more energetic, and defensively committed Rockets team. The tide especially turned in the 3rd when the Rockets played a lineup of Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith, Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams. The Pelicans basically could score against it, and the Rockets realized Sengun could cook any Pelicans big man in the paint. The third ended with the Rockets leading 89-74 as they held New Orleans to a measly 15 points in the entire quarter.
The fourth was generally more of the same, though the Rockets offense fell apart, again, on a series of missed easy shots, bad turnovers that should have been fast break points, and general lack of scoring. Still, while New Orleans brought the score to single digits with about four minutes left in the game, the Rockets found a bit of offense themselves, mostly on a very effective Jalen/Sengun high pick and roll, and Sengun drive for a pass off to an Amen Thompson dunk. They lost the quarter 24-20, but won the game 109-97.
With NBA teams averaging nearly 112 points per game, any contest where the opponent is held under 100 is a great defensive effort. Trey Murphy III for example, had 20 points at halftime, but 26 for the entire game. Zion Williamson was held to 20 points, half of those from the free throw line, on a wide variety of soft calls, mostly.
For the Rockets this game wasn’t just “good numbers/iffy performance” from Sengun, it was genuinely as good as it looked. Alpie scored 22 points on 11-14 shooting, with 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, one block, against 4 turnovers, many of those in the first half.
Jalen had a rough shooting night, the impact of which was blunted by a low number of shot attempts. I’d argue he very much should have shot more than one free throw, given that he drove fairly often, and New Orleans offense generated 33 free throws to 18 for the Rockets, despite New Orleans arguably playing more physically than the Rockets.
Amen Thompson returned to XLNC tonight, scoring 21 points on 10-13 shooting, with 11 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in under 40(!) minutes (39).
Jabari had a much better offensive game, even if the numbers looked less convincing, as his decision making, and decisiveness were much better than his recent outings. He scored 16 while grabbing 5 boards, with one spectacular block. His stretch in the third quarter helped turn the game.
Reed Sheppard also saw time tonight, and while he missed shots, he played aggressively, and shot good looks (with the exception of one quick three). He also showed signs of the sort of excellent passer he can become.
Overall the Rockets played three very good quarters of defense, and one of offense, and that was enough. They play the Pelicans again, but in Houston this time, on Saturday.
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