The Houston Rockets earned their first win of the season at the price of handing Steve Clifford and the Charlotte Hornets their first road defeat, 128-119. This is just one of those games that Charlotte just needs to toss out as soon as possible, though.

Watch whatever film you need to take from it of course, but this was just not a pretty game from start to finish. There was only one lead change in this game, the Rockets shot 56 percent from deep compared to the Hornets' 40 percent, and some of Charlotte's key guys came alive too late in the game.

With a loss like that, coach Steve Clifford said it was “disappointing” to lose their road opener in such a fashion.

“That's what this league is,” Clifford said.  “You don't go euphoric when you win games or go nuts when you lose games. This means we gotta do better. A lot of the stuff we didn't do well tonight we've done well in the other games. We just gotta put it all together. The worst thing you can do after that is overreact. We've only played four games.”

Steve Clifford does have a point. The Hornets struggled to guard the 3-point line on Wednesday and have done that better in some of their past games. They also had some costly turnovers at certain junctions in the game that could have been turning points for them to steal the lead back or come back within striking distance.

Not to mention that guys just couldn't find their rhythm most of the game, outside of Gordon Hayward and PJ Washington midway through the second quarter. Terry Rozier and LaMelo Ball got going later in the fourth, but it wasn't enough to make the game competitive.

As stated above, this is a game to throw away. It's a short turnaround for them as they travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers on November 4th. A solid opportunity to get back in the win column after three straight losses.