Houston Rockets Weekly Wraps: Week 2

Welcome back to Houston Rockets Weekly Wraps: Week 2. I am your humble host, Trenton Whiting -TV reporter in Victoria and Houston sports fanatic. Today we’re going to talk about the past week, in which, I predicted a 2-1 record which. The rockets did hit that mark, but not necessarily the games I predicted. We’ll get into all of that and more plus this upcoming week’s predictions, so let’s get right into it 

Break it up. Break it up. Break down. 

Rockets finished the second week of the season with a positive record. Exactly what they were looking for: winning more games than they lost. Even in the game that they lost, they still had a chance to finish with a dub. So let’s talk about what went well this week leading to two victories and a near comeback and then a little bit later we’ll talk about what went wrong in that final loss and maybe in some of the wins as well. 

Big ups

Let’s start off with the first game of the week against the San Antonio Spurs. It was what have to say was probably the best game Jalen green has had this season. His efficiency making all of his free throw seven of seven taking just 22 shots to get to 36 points. Incredible game by the budding star shooting guard.

He and Jabari Smith Jr had some pretty efficient games overall and did a lot to help lead the offense. Alperen Sengun struggled somewhat, but the streets say Alpi is still dealing with some sort of back injury, so who knows when we’ll see him be as efficient as we’re used to seeing him.

One major positive that I’ll talk about is the impact of Steven Adams for the young guards and slashers on this team. They look way more comfortable and have much more space. It’s also so so nice to have an enforcer with a reputation like Steven Adams strongest guy in the league.

Daniel Gafford from Dallas didn’t want any part the beef brewing with Tari because of Big Steve stepping in between and shutting any sort of altercation down. After running past a crushing Adam’s screen Adam’s absolutely blows guys up and led to the loudest dunk of the season for Jalen green which ended up being the dunk with the highest vertical jump.

Hence the name of this segment “big UPS” as Jalen showed his ups off on that play.

Adams is also a strong defender and is definitely a plus on both sides of the ball. He even scored against the Spurs, hitting all three of his shots. So major props to Stevo for his performance.

Another positive that I’ll speak on (side note, I will always admit when I’m wrong and Eden Crow as one of my favorite meals) but the defense of Dillon Brooks against the Spurs proved why the rockets chose to invest so much capital into him.

He did a solid guarding Wembanyama and switching on to other players who aren’t as integral in the offense. He did a solid job once again matching up against Luka Doncic.

The team did a really good job guarding against Luka and not falling for his pump fakes or his trickery. They generally stayed in front to force some tough shots, especially in the clutch when Luca attempted to take over.

The team wasn’t so successful against Kyrie Irving, but both stars got their buckets, and that will be something negative we speak about.

I think this week deserves a little bit more time on the positives after a positive record has everyone feeling positive.

Let’s talk a little more about that Mavericks game since I just hyped up the defense, but I won’t go as far as to say that Luca had a bad game.

He still nearly had 30 points and it wasn’t like he was terribly inefficient either. Kyrie got near 30 points as well so the star players were in full effect.

I will say the one thing that is a great sign is Luka having only two assists in the game. We all know how incredible a playmaker Luka is for his teammates creating shots for the shooters on that team.

So for the defense to stay home and limit some of those open shots and lobs at the bucket spoke volumes to how strong this defense can be.

And let me give a quick shout out to the big man Alpi. The Turkish center stopped a few lobs at the bucket that are clearly so deadly and a major reason for the Mavericks making it to the finals last year. He also played solid defense on the big men throughout the game.

Alpi hasn’t started scoring at his usual clip yet but the effort is there. The fight is there and he has looked so much more improved on the defensive side of the ball.

You love to see it.

The offense against the Mavs was pretty solid as well. Some spectacular shots from Jalen. He didn’t have the most efficient night but still found a way to score over 20. There were major contributions across the board, and Jabari Smith is quietly having some strong nights well.

His three-point shot hasn’t been consistent yet, but he still finds ways to contribute. You can tell when he’s engaged in the game, grabbing boards and cutting to the paint for layups and dunks. His shooting against the warriors may have been his best night of the season, despite the tough turnout.

Now, I predicted the Mavs game to be a loss. I’m happy to be incorrect. But the team that I least wanted to lose to this week was actually the one team that seemed to have control over the whole game.

Of course I’m talking about the Dubs from Golden State. The Warriors game was filled with a lot of negative, but before I get on the negatives we still pull some positives from what was a pretty rough loss.

The one positive thing that I take away from a game like is that they’re willing to fight and they don’t feel like the game is over.

Obviously if a certain all-time point guard was playing for the warriors, maybe the comeback doesn’t happen. Against another team who does have their best players playing, maybe the score is even worse or the the deficit stays the same throughout the game. But in this one, everything worked out to make the game interesting in the fourth quarter after battling back from 31 down.

I have to give a shout out to the bench guys. Amen Thompson and Tari Eason off the bench and Jabari Smith were the reason why this game was so close there at the end. Especially Tari who had the best game of his entire career against the warriors. It’s a shame. It almost feels like it went to waste.

Because the rockets had no business being in that game; it took everything inside of those three guys to bring the game back. 13 points in the fourth quarter from Smith, 11 points from Thompson. But Tari, Tari, Tari. Just doing everything on both sides of the ball. He made threes, he stole the ball. He was getting blocks and just was the all around player that Ime Udoka loves.

Now, as much as I would love to keep gushing about how well they played in their two victories and how well they played in a comeback attempt against the warriors, a lot of that last game was absolutely horrible to watch.

There were clearly some moments to clean up and the first two games as well despite them being victories. So now that we’ve talked a little bit about the positives, it’s time to be a Debbie Downer. Because by the end of the week, just like the end of the game against the warriors, it looks like the rockets were- 

Running out of steam 

We’ll start with that warriors game since it was absolutely the worst performance of the week despite the comeback effort. Against Dallas we saw the team stick to their defensive game plan very well. Klay Thompson got away for some three-pointers late against Dallas, but for the most part the team did a great job identifying the shooter and removing him from fast break situations. None of that happened against the warriors and buddy healed has continued to have an incredible season and prove to people why he is one of the best shooters in the league.

He scored 27 points against the rockets was the lead ball handler in a lot of possessions. Now that’s not exactly what the warriors wanted, but I don’t think the rockets made them pay enough for Buddy being the lead handler.

Him and Draymond obviously shared duties, but I would trust Draymond with the ball way more than I trust Buddy. And even Draymond made some mistakes late in that game.

So the fact that the rockets couldn’t take advantage of no Steph Curry, they deserved the 30-point deficit that they had in the first half.

The scoring was not there.

Jalen had his worst game of the season the same week as what I would consider the best game of the season for him. He dropped only seven points and five of those came in the second half.

Alpi had a rough game as well and both of those players were iced out a little bit in the fourth quarter.

Coach decided to keep the bench players that I mentioned earlier in the game to run through, but because of that, all their effort and energy went into bringing down the deficit.

So by the time it was really winning time there at the end of regulation and in overtime, there was no gas left. The team was, well- go back and read the title of this segment.

I hyped up Thompson a little bit because he absolutely took over along with tari and Jabari there in the fourth quarter, but by overtime the warriors had figured out what they were doing.

By the time they got into overtime, energy did play a factor.

It’s a lot easier to jump into bodies earlier in the game when you have a little bit more energy, but especially after you’ve battled back from a deficit, jumping into those bodies is not as appealing.

Tari also slowed down. He obviously didn’t have anything left by the end of it and while he deserves a lot of credit he was the best player on the floor for the rockets tonight.

Somebody else has to step in. And by somebody else, I mean hopefully one of your starters like Fred Van fleet who has not had a strong start to his season.

Of course, I do not believe this is what we’ll see at Fred the rest of the season. He just went from last year being forced to carry the rockets in some instances.

I would understand a little bit of a sluggish start as he tries to figure out his new role with Jalen being able to handle more of the play making responsibilities. But Fred will have to pick it up eventually, because the way he played this week is not going to cut it for a team trying to make it into the post season.

He and Dillon Brooks are still looking for their three-point shots to start falling.

If you remember last year, DB started the year on fire before returning to the mean somewhat. I don’t think it’s out of the question to think that Brooks still has a high rate of shooting in him.

What I will say is I haven’t necessarily liked his shot profile to start the season. I think there’s been way too many mid-range shots.

And Fred Van Vleet has too much experience as a guy who can take a backseat and still be productive for me to believe that his level of contribution in this early part of the season will stay the same throughout the season.

I believe he’s a better passer and shooter than what he’s displayed so far. But again, Jalen is able to take more responsibility of the offense on his own, and when Alpi returns to his form; that’ll be a two-headed playmaking monster led by the young guys, which was the plan the whole time.

Against the warriors it would have been nice if some of the starters could have came to play. The coach too had ways to improve in this game, because keeping your star players out the entire 4th quarter and then playing exclusively through Jalen green in overtime was a recipe for failure.

I would understand potentially if Jalen had showed any signs of life throughout the game or if there was even a 5-minute stretch where maybe Jalen took over and showed excellent passing vision and excellent shooting.

But we didn’t see any of that. And yet the ball was in his hands in overtime which is partially why the offense looked so impotent.

Clearly you shouldn’t expect the starters to have as bad of a game as they did no disrespect to Jabari who was really the only good starter in this game.

I would love to see the Rockets get a bit more dominating wins like they did against the Grizzlies, but until guys get healthy and the guys who are playing get more consistent, we’re likely to see some of these deep valleys throughout the season.

Let’s just hope the peaks are more often and that the average games are a little bit better than we’ve seen in recent years from the rockets.

But it’s really easy to get negative about a loss. What’s harder is figuring out who this week’s player of the week should be. While he dropped a bit of a stinker in that last game, it is extremely difficult for me to pick anyone else besides Jalen green for this week’s- 

Player of the week 

Honorable mention to Tari Eason: if he had a little bit of a better game against the Spurs, I would have easily given it to him.

But Jalen’s highs this week spoke a little bit more than his lows to end the week.

Dropping a season high 36 against the Spurs, following it up with a strong 23 points against the Mavericks.

I’m greatly encouraged by seeing just how much responsibility Jalen is willing to put on his shoulders for this offense, especially while his partner in crime is still waiting in the wings.

I feel confident that throughout time, Jalen is going to understand how to attack defenses even when shots aren’t falling or he’s seeing different looks. Hitting all seven of his free throws against the Spurs is exactly what I want to see. If he can keep his free throw attempts at around 7-10 a game, I think that will be what puts him over the edge and lifts him up to being a 24+ PPG player.

I won’t harp on his stinker against the warriors too much, but a game like that is when the free-throw line would be a huge help, especially for a slasher like him.

Speaking of his slashing he made some of the best shots I’ve ever seen from him. This week, he had an and one layup against the Mavericks that looked like something Dwayne Wade would do. And just some of the other things Jalen is able to do while in the air as well as his ability to create shots on his own and his new found ability to create shots for his teammates are great signs.

This is the version of Jalen that the team was hoping for. He’s got to be more consistent, but soon enough when the rest of his teammates in the starting lineup start showing up to these games like Fred, DB and Alpi, I believe we will be ready to see a different version of Jalen green as well.

Major props to Jabari Smith who again has quietly been one of the starters holding things down doing some of the dirty work so that players like Jalen can come in and bring the flash; word to the all-time shooting guard that I just mentioned few sentences ago.

Next week

We’re going to be taking a look at games against New York. The San Antonio Spurs again. The Oklahoma City thunder Aunt the Detroit Pistons. Should be a good measuring stick week for where this rockets team compares to some of the other good teams in the league. The Knicks the thunder will be great tests for this rockets team. If they look good against those teams and find ways to win. I think Houston fans will be feeling good about this team’s prospects for the rest of the season. Conversely, if the team lays a couple stinkers this week, especially if they lose to the Spurs or the Pistons, there’s going to be a lot of questions as to what this team can do better or improve upon to win, but we’ll talk more about next week. Next week for now is a good time to talk a little bit about my 

Predictions 

We’ll quickly go over last week’s predictions. I went 1-2 in my predictions despite guessing the record correctly. I was really really hoping that they would beat Golden State, and I thought Luka would be on MVP mode. Alpi was also not the player of the week as I predicted, but I feel like these next few weeks, when players start returning to form, it’ll be a little bit easier for me to decide who should get that accolade, but I’ll go ahead and give you my predictions for this upcoming week.

Next Week’s Record: 2-2

Vs New York Knicks (L)

Vs San Antonio Spurs (W)

@ Oklahoma City Thunder (L)

@ Detroit Pistons (W)

Player of the Week: Amen Thompson

Come back next week for Houston Rockets Weekly Wraps!