If it wasn't so before, Monday night made it abundantly clear that there won't be a rock bottom for the Houston Rockets. This is a really bad basketball team and they're shaping up to be at the top of the lottery for their second straight season. However, we're also in pretty dicey territory. Twelve-game losing streaks inspire change, either from the coaching staff or the front office. The Rockets are at defcon two right now.
Rockets Takeaways After Loss To Grizzlies
1. Another brutal first quarter start
Stephen Silas entertained possibly changing the starting lineup after the Rockets fell to the Suns on Sunday night, but ultimately chose to stick it out another game. The results weren't pretty. Houston got outscored 33 to 20 in the first quarter and could not find the bottom of the net offensively. It's pretty clear that the spacing is just too clunky with that lineup and the Rockets should insert Alperen Sengun or Eric Gordon into their starting unit to inject some firepower at the start of games.
2. Turnovers galore
Another reason Houston started the game off so poorly was their eight first quarter turnovers. For the life of them, they cannot seem to get this issue under control and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime this season. Houston's young backcourt, led by Kevin Porter Jr. in usage rate, just looks so far away from being ready to lead an NBA offense. Passes are late, off-target, and hastily thrown all the time. However, a bigger problem tonight for Houston on the turnover front was actually Daniel Theis, who threw the ball over five times. This is the same amount of turnovers Jalen Green and Porter Jr. combined for on the night.
“They're trying hard to make the right play and the frustration creeps in,” said Stephen Silas after the game. “The way they're trying to share it, I get that part. We just have to clean it up.”
3. Houston is way too dependent on Eric Gordon
With the Rockets coming off a back-to-back, Eric Gordon had to miss the game with groin tightness. It was a red flag how much Houston's rotations fell apart without him on Monday. Alperen Sengun was the only reliable offensive hub in the second unit and without him, it could've gotten even uglier for the second unit. It's a giant red flag that Gordon is basically the only thing keeping Houston's paper-thin backcourt rotation together. They just have nobody dependable behind him and as a result, their offense craters to even greater depths.
4. Jalen Green is not NBA ready
shot out of a rocket 🦄
5 early ones for @jarenjacksonjr pic.twitter.com/ve8hxkURcH
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) November 16, 2021
This was the perfect game to show someone if you wanted to describe how Jalen Green's season was going in 48 minutes. He started the game off looking incredibly lost and started gaining confidence in the second and third quarters to actually finish with a decent shooting game by his standards. He also finished a team worst minus 37. Green was poor on the defensive end and didn't really generate offense that was helping the Rockets climb back into the game. It's going to go overy terribly with the fanbase and national media, but it may not be the worst idea for Green to come off the bench.
He'll still receive a ton of minutes and get to face second units with better floor spacing around him than is provided with the first unit.
Houston will try and redeem themselves with their second win of the season against Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
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