By: Forrest Walker
Some days, everything just goes wrong. Certainly, the Rockets had elements of their decision making, of their chemistry and their rotations they could have improved. Too many shooters were left open in corners, and too many plays devolved into isolation. The Houston Rockets have some issues to address following their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. But sometimes it really does just come down to a roll of the dice. Sometimes, it just comes down to how many open shots you can hit, or rather how many you can miss. Even with all the odd factors in this game, the Rockets could have won it. The game became a shootout, and the Rockets found their chambers empty.
That score of 108 might imply that perhaps the Rockets didn't miss so many shots after all, and that it was a high scoring affair. It was, indeed, high-scoring. It was also high in possessions. After adjusting for pace, Houston had a defensive efficiency of 109.4 points per 100 possessions, which is about a point worse that the worst defensive team in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers. That was very bad. On the offensive side of the ball, the Rockets scored 101.8 points per 100 possessions, which is right on the money for the Denver Nuggets' season average, good for 20th in the league. neither of these numbers are good.
When you compare some shooting numbers, however, things get nasty. The Rockets shot the ball 95 times and connected on 36 of them. They hit 27 of 43 free throws and 9 of 39 three pointers. This gives you an effective field goal percentage of 42.6%. True Shooting, which takes free throws into account, gives a more generous 47.4%. To put that in perspective, the Golden State Warriors lead the league with 56.3% EFG and 59.4% TS while the 30th place Los Angeles Lakers sport 45.6% EFG and 50.3% TS. The Thunder shot a mere 19 three pointers in that game and hit 9 of them. many of those were open, but so were many of Houston's.
This is all to say that while the Rockets do indeed need to tighten up on defense, sometimes they really do lose games due to bad shooting nights. Corey Brewer and Clint Capela were particularly bad at layups and dunks, something which affected both teams early. The Thunder, however, found their footing and pulled out. The Rockets just kept shooting and missing. Whatever dark magic the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors use to turn all of their players into deadeyes, the Rockets need to emulate. There comes a point when a problem is endemic enough to speak to an organizational flaw, and I suspect we're at that point with Houston's sporadic shooting. It doesn't make sense to rank in the top 10 in EFG and TS and offensive efficiency and then be unable to hit the water from a canoe on other nights.
Other "highlights" of this game include a couple moments which will undoubtedly become talking points, and which involve the referees. The whistle was seemingly arbitrary all game, and there were some moments that the team took umbrage to. First was the ejection of Dwight Howard with seven minutes left in the third quarter. He and Kyle Singler had become tangled up early in the game, resulting in a shove from Dwight which gave him his first technical foul. The second tech, which resulted in his ejection, was after a complaint to an official about a call. That street ran both ways, however, and Dion Waiters was later given a tech for complaining about a no-call on a dunk. The difference here, unfortunately for the Rockets, was that Dwight Howard was a key part of their game plan, and his absence left Houston vulnerable to Enes Kanter's 100% offense game. Dwight Howard, whether he likes it or not, whether he thinks it's fair or not, has no room to complain. That's best left to the coaching staff, who aren't needed to guard the rim on every possession. The Rockets were actually up by double digits most of the game until Dwight Howard was ejected. This can't happen.
The other point of outrage for Houston was a very hard foul against Corey Brewer on a fast break which sent him careening into the stanchion and was totally missed by the officials. Patrick Beverley took a hard intentional foul on Russell Westbrook, and it was this which the officials reviewed to see if it was flagrant. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff had to calm his furious team, lest they get more players ejected. Unfortunately for Houston, coming out angry doesn't seem to do much for their game, and as they continued to feel slighted, they started to get railroaded by an increasingly confident Thunder team. Perhaps the atmosphere would have been different in Houston, but in Oklahoma City, the Rockets were unable to impose their will, even though they tried. The worst thing about the game was that Patrick Beverley re-sprained his ankle late, something which may become very important.
This game was a mess, but if it had happened last season, it would be simply a blip on the radar. The fact that the Rockets kept ahead for most of the game (and even came within a couple possessions of tying while Russell Westbrook was building a triple double) despite their putrid shooting was encouraging for most of the game. The Rockets gave better effort, and they didn't give up, even if they didn't respond as stridently as one would hope. Sometimes, things go wrong. The best you can do it play it out and keep trying.
