The little ball of the Rockets did not seem so small. The worst thing is, it’s their best way.
Again, whatever rockets they find to give them a chance, they are missing the obvious and insurmountable.
On Monday, the Rockets missed the guards and the delivery and playmaking they delivered, which led to an attack.
On Tuesday, they were unable to beat the missing centers. With Christian Wood out and Timurcus Cousins ineffective, the rockets were crushed on the boards and beaten with paint until the Pelicans finished 130-101 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. This coincided with the longest slip of the season and sent the Rockets to a third straight loss.
Their 60 points on the Pelicans ’score and paint allowed the Rockets (11-13) more this season.
New Orleans (11-12) sank the Rockets with a second chance at clearing the glass in the first half. It was the second half, especially when the rockets rallied within eight points in the third quarter, which went to the edge until the rockets were submitted.
The Rockets, playing their fifth game in seven nights, eventually hit a wall in the fourth quarter. But even before that, the defense that held the rally in the third quarter and kept them in the game began to explode.
The 22-7 Pelicans led by 23 runs and destroyed the benches early on. But even before that, when Zion Williamson, Steven Adams and Willie Hernangomas were battling it out (although Williamson and Adams each played only 21 minutes), guard Josh Hart came up with a career-high top 17 rebounds.
No rocket player has a double-digit restart. John Wall (25) and Eric Gordon (23) combined for 48 points, but the remaining Rockets were 19 for 49 from the field. Brandon Ingram led the Pelicans with 9 points from 13 shots with 22 points, while Williams scored 20 points in 21 minutes, while Hart, playing with the backbone was questionable, scoring 20 points to go with his career night on the boards.
The Rockets dominated the boards in the first half, turning the close game into a 18-point deficit. They went 20 midway behind in the third quarter, but rallied.
But as the pelicans retreated, the rockets crashed. They were pushed through the night.
It’s no secret that Rockets coach Stephen Silas fills any base gap one night, showing his players possessions that did not even hit a defensive stand in half.
The pelicans, who won for the fourth time, could not be approached by rockets to keep them away from the attack boards. For most of the league it was tough. New Orleans’ average of 15.5 second chance points leads the NBA to a game.
On Tuesday, however, Williamson was limited to seven minutes by a bad problem, but the Pelicans took the lead within half an hour.
The rockets that failed to box out failed, and Hart regained his own missed free throw. When Hart put his follow jumper into the alley through a Danuel House junior foul, he finished 17-0, which took less than three minutes to rush to a 61-43 lead.
The Rockets finished half with a shine, reducing the lead to 63-50 in half. But it also reminded me of other basic flaws in the first half that could not be fixed by video review.
Wall did not see a free throw in the second quarter, he was 0 for 4 in the half, the Rockets were 4 for 12, while the Pelicans, the NBA’s worst free-throw shooting team, went 13 for 14.
Considering how problematic it was to hit shots beyond the path the rockets hit enough. With the exception of Gordon, who created 3 of the 5 3-Ponders, they are 1 in 12 beyond the curve.
They defended the Pelicans well and had 38.3 percent of the first shots fired. But while giving up points at one end, the Rockets allowed second shots on the other, doing everything they could to avoid being thrown in the first half.
In the third quarter they were pushed to that edge, with Silas returning to his bench and a small row 20 behind, gaining the defensive power to turn things around.
The Rockets closed at eight, but failed to make 3 – missing 4 out of 5 to close in the quarter – to finish that run, going down to 11 in the fourth quarter and already seem to be running out of time, stops and confidence.
Jonathan Feigan reported from Houston.
