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It looked as though the stars were aligning for the Houston Rockets coming off a frustrating loss against the Sacramento Kings. On Thursday night, they faced a Golden State Warriors team that was without two of its best players in Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, favoring the Rockets heavily. But in classic trap game fashion, the Rockets slipped on a banana peel en route to a disappointing 99-93 loss — their 15th in a row against the Dubs.
It's far from panic time for a Rockets team that remains tied for second place in the Western Conference standings with a 15-8 record. Nevertheless, head coach Ime Udoka is clearly not pleased with what he's seeing from his team, calling them out for their effort and poor execution in an overall poor night against the Warriors.
“All the things we've done to get a decent record have gone out of the window these last couple of games… A few guys really didn't look like they showed up 'til after halftime… One of our softest games since I've been here for sure,” Udoka said in his postgame presser, via the official ClutchPoints account on X (formerly Twitter).
The Rockets' offense as of late has been brutal to watch. Their defense kept them competitive against the Kings and the Warriors, but the game of basketball is won by the team that scores more points, and Houston simply has found it difficult to put the ball through the basket in recent games.
Against the Warriors, they shot 37.6 percent from the field as a team and only 26.3 percent from beyond the arc, and it's hard to win ballgames if the team shoots that poorly as a collective. The Rockets will look to bounce back when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, December 8.
Rockets run clogged toilet offense to (im)perfection
The beauty of this Rockets team lies in their ability to suffocate opposing teams on defense, creating easy buckets in turn by pushing the pace and forcing turnovers. But in the halfcourt, that's where things bog down for the Rockets.
No starter for the Rockets shot above 50 percent from the field, and their backcourt decided to build a house with their bricks, with Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green combining to shoot 9-30 from the floor. The Warriors did a good job of forcing the Rockets to take tough shots and encouraging them to go one on one plenty of times, with Houston taking the bait.
The last time that the Rockets beat the Warriors was all the way back in February 2020; that was when the Dubs were the worst team in the league while Houston still had James Harden and Russell Westbrook leading the way — a time long gone.
