Looks as though the ghost of last years past has crept upon us on last night as the Rockets lose to the red hot Trail Blazers 125-111. The Rockets’ record now stands at a dismal 1-5 due to horrible defense, bad shooting, and just an overall lack of cohesion.
The #Rockets offense is something else.. pic.twitter.com/hhB5MzGNFo
— Bradeaux (@BradeauxNBA) October 29, 2022
In this particular loss, despite our efforts, it just did not seem that we could string it all together to beat this Blazers team. Let’s give them credit though, as everyone assumed they were going to tank this year, but they have come out red hot and they showed the Rockets last night. Alperen Sengun got the nod at center, due to the injury to Bruno Fernando, and had a decent game. However, his defensive struggles bubbled up to the surface as it seemed Jusuf Nurkić and the rest of the team feasted on our inferior defense. Despite that being said, the team overall put the effort in to keep the game close.
Jabari Smith Jr was always destined to play defense like this at the NBA level.
— Ersin Demir (@EDemirNBA) October 29, 2022
Absorbs the contact and simply swatted the ball away for a Rockets transition opportunity.
Shoots 35.7% on 7 threes per game so far. pic.twitter.com/XSACvGzRDi
Last night was probably Jalen Green’s worst performance of the year so far. He shot 4-19 from the field and shot 2-10 from behind the arc. In addition, his +/- was a -19 and that was a team worst. I don’t expect these performances to come often, for Jalen, but these are the kind of bumps in the road that will help in the long run. It’s just unfortunate thus far but we will be okay in the long run in terms of development.
back 'em down Bari 👏 pic.twitter.com/yAqaM0yipS
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) October 29, 2022
Unfortunately, we had to chalk up another one into the loss column. However, on the bright side, I don’t think it was as ugly as that Jazz defeat but I could be grasping at straws at this point. The only good thing about this start is, for now, we’re trending towards the direction of Wemby or Scoot Henderson.
