The Houston Rockets, once owners of the NBA's longest active winning streak at seven games, finally lost on Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. It was Houston's first loss since November 22nd, which is incredible because they had just come off a 15-game losing streak.
Of course, the winning streak was always going to end eventually and it's not the worst thing in the world for it to happen against the defending NBA champions.
“My message was that they should be so proud of what we've done,” said Rockets head coach Stephen Silas on his message in the locker room after the game. “They should be proud that we went toe-to-toe with the champs and it took Giannis to go for 41 [to beat us]. They played tonight. The Bucks played. And we were right there with them. So they should be so proud of who they've become and how they've improved. They should be proud of every game of the seven-game winning streak.”
Of course, Silas is completely right to have this sentiment. However, it's hard not to look back to see where things went wrong for Houston on Friday. And it really starts on the defensive end, where the Rockets could not find an answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo barreling to the rim at will every possession he was in the game. It was almost like whatever defense Houston put up was futile because Antetokounmpo was going to find a way to break it.
“We tried a little bit of everything,” said Silas on the Rockets defending Antetokounmpo. “When he gets a head of steam, he's just really hard to guard. [Jae'Sean Tate] tried his hardest. [Christian] Wood tried his hardest. [Alperen Sengun] got some of him as well. David Nwaba tried. K.J. [Martin] tried. He's an MVP caliber player that is really hard to stop when he's going downhill.”
Giannis (41 PTS & 17 REB) had himself a night in Houston 👀 pic.twitter.com/Je44T7BJvf
— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 11, 2021
Antetokounmpo finished the game with 41 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks, on 15 of 19 shooting from the field and 10 of 14 shooting from the free-throw line. The Rockets just didn't have an answer for him and in the end, it's what kept the Bucks close. They would try and get some separation and then Antetokounmpo would find an open shooter in the corner. Then, Houston would finally drive up a lead and he'd get to the free-throw line a few times in a row. It was a vicious cycle for 48 minutes.
“It took us our first few possessions to show him a crowd,” said forward Jae'Sean Tate on defending Antetokounmpo. “That's the best you can do. You got to show him a crowd early. He's a willing passer so when he sees open guys sometimes you gotta just live with that. I think we got to do a better job of not crowding off the strong-side corner. Grayson [Allen] and Pat [Connaughton] hit some big ones in the corner. That hurt us down the stretch. Just helping off the strong side.”
And while the Rockets did over-help as Tate says, they also kind of had to. Antetokounmpo has such a massive strength advantage over everyone on the Rockets not named Alperen Sengun. And if it wasn't a strength advantage, it was a quickness advantage. No matter how they adjusted, there was a counter.
“You gotta meet his physicality,” said Christian Wood. “He's a physical person. He likes to get to the rim, put his head down, and shoulder guys. Me and Jae'Sean were obviously in foul trouble so it was kind of hard for us to get it going.”
At the end of the day, this was just a terrible matchup for the Rockets. They don't have big enough wings to defend teams like this and it's impressive that they made this a contest with the talent deficit that they have in comparison.
“I mean he was still 15 for 19 from the field,” said Tate. “That's why he's the MVP. He's going to make those shots. He's going to make tough shots.”
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