If there was ever a rock-bottom for the Houston Rockets this season, Wednesday night was it. After losing 11 consecutive games, the Rockets went into Oklahoma City and dropped their 12th straight game to the Thunder. Although the Thunder are the 10th seed in the Western Conference, from a talent perspective, many perceived them to be the worst team in basketball. Even though they've started better than most expected, it's still not a great look to lose to them.
Let's go over what was important.
Rockets Takeaways After Loss To Thunder
1. Jalen Green: Much better with floor spacing
I wrote about Jalen Green's struggle playing with two big men on the floor versus one. It's quite clear that the cramped floor spacing cuts off driving lanes for him and those lanes were open for him on Wednesday. In addition to his finishes at the rim, Green got to the free throw line six times and was consistent in his downhill approach. Stephen Silas was non-committal when asked if this would be the new starting lineup for Houston moving forward (if Kevin Porter Jr. slots into his usual spot), but it's clear the team will look at surrounding Green with shooting lineups in the future.
“Once they collapsed, there were a lot of kick outs,” said Green. “We were on point offensively. We just gotta hit shots.”
2. The weird Alperen Sengun situation
It's pretty baffling that after Alperen Sengun's recent play, he was asked to play less, not more. It's become pretty clear that Sengun is worthy of a starting spot on the team and to only receive five minutes against one of the worst rosters in the NBA is a head-scratcher. Even if Houston wanted more floor spacing, they still closed the game with Christian Wood and Daniel Theis. Because of how important he is to Houston's offense, there shouldn't be games where he plays less than twenty minutes per game this season.
Article Continues Below3. Christian Wood: King of the “I got this”
It's gotten to be pretty hilarious how often Christian Wood will run a dribble hand-off with a teammate and then opt to drive it in himself. Sometimes these hand-offs are faked on purpose, but often times it's just Wood deciding mid-moment that he's the superior option for the play. Wood is clearly the best player on the Rockets, so this is not a slight. However, he does seem to want to take over a game every minute he's on the floor. It's the big man version of the guard telling his players to step to the side for an isolation “I got this” play.
— Salman Ali (@SalmanAliNBA) November 18, 2021
4. Garrison Matthews knows why he's in the NBA
Players that know exactly what they are in the NBA are so fun to watch. This applies to nobody more than Garrison Matthews, who knows that he's out there to take a bunch of threes and play adequate defense. Matthews has gotten to be a career 38.7% three-point shooter in the NBA, but plays like 45% career three-point shooter. He's currently attempting an incredible 9.0 threes per 36 minutes. So many good three-point shooters that are below a certain age in the NBA prefer to play a conservative style of basketball, but Matthews has taken the opposite approach and I believe it will serve him well.
— Salman Ali (@SalmanAliNBA) November 18, 2021