Silas hoping to solidify rotation

The Rockets will use their final preseason game Friday as a dress rehearsal, playing as much of their planned regularseason rotation as available.

How much of their regulars will play in San Antonio is unclear with guard Eric Gordon, who missed the past two games with a sore left ankle, and center Daniel Theis, who has a sore left knee, both considered day-to-day.

“It’s a work in progress for sure,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “With the fourth preseason game coming up, we’re going to be hopefully as close to regular season rotation and principles, as we can be.”

The Rockets trailed by as many as 21 against the Heat and by 24 against the Raptors. They rallied in the fourth quarters of all three games, taking a comeback win against the Wizards. But with just four practices and one preseason game remaining before the season opener, and with a light preseason schedule of just four games, every opportunity to get work in is considered especially valuable.

That is also why Silas has not had an opportunity to give extended playing time to all 18 available players and why Friday’s game will be useful to look at his regulars, rather than players competing to make the team.

“It will be more rotation and less roster spots,” Silas said of decisions that could be influenced by Friday’s game. “Depending on who’s available, since it’s our last chance before we play Minnesota, I want to play it as close to a regular season rotation as possible.”

There is another reason to give rotation players available the bulk of the playing time.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” reserve point guard D.J. Augustin said. “We still have a good amount of time before our first real game. That’s always a plus. We have another preseason game to try to get better. This whole season we’re going to have a lot of work ahead of us. We’re a young team. Just try to keep building every day.”

Team makes roster moves

The Rockets will convert the contract of guard Armoni Brooks to a twoway deal and waive forward

Tyler Bey, a person with knowledge of the moves said Wednesday.

Brooks, who has continued to display the rangeshooting touch he showed late last season and in summer league play, had 15 fourth-quarter points on Monday in Toronto and has averaged 10 points on 56.2 percent shooting in the preseason, playing in all three games.

Bey played seven minutes in just one of the three games after playing 18 games with the Mavericks last season on a twoway contract.

The Rockets will have to make on more roster move to get down to the maximum of 15 players, not including the two on two-way contracts.

Consistently inconsistent

Asked if there was anything that had been done well in each of the three games, Silas was stumped. There was not an area that he could cite. But there was a positive way to look at that.

“I wish I could say ‘yes’ to that,” Silas said. “We’ve been a little inconsistent. The first game was very different from the last two games, very much a product of the teams we were playing, the excitement of game one vs. the grind of game two against Miami and us being on the road for game three.”

The Rockets have not been consistently sharp in any one area, but they have also shown improvement in the part of the game they have emphasized most in practices.

Though they surrendered 107 points on 45.6 percent shooting in Toronto, even with the Raptors playing backup guards for the entire second half and Pascal Siakam not at all, their defense had improved. The issues with the Rockets defense were primarily the fault of their offense.

The Rockets committed 30 turnovers, leading to 32 points. When the Raptors were not on fast breaks, however, they made just 26 of 71 (36.6 percent) shots.