Long-distance shooting falls apart in Vegas final
The Rockets reached the Las Vegas Summer League championship game on the strength of prolific 3-point shooting.
They fell short of the title when that strength betrayed them.
The Cavaliers led from start to finish, topping the Rockets 99-78 on Monday for the Las Vegas Summer League championship.
The top scoring team in the summer league, averaging 110.2 points per game, the Rockets could not shoot even close to well enough to approach that kind of scoring.
The Rockets’ reliance on their range shooting was not by choice as much as by necessity. When the Rockets chose to shut down Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason after two games, with 7-1 center Jay Huff shutting himself down to sign a two-way contract with the Nuggets, the Rockets were left with no frontcourt size.
They instead spread the floor, launched 3s and used the spacing to mix in just enough drives to the rim. Little of that worked Monday when the Rockets could make just 11 of 36 3pointers.
Nate Hinton led the Rockets for a second consecutive game, scoring 18 points, mostly by getting to the rim. Cam Whitmore, who was named the Summer League MVP on Monday, added 14 points, shooting 6-for-17 from the floor, including 2-of-8 on 3pointers.
The Cavaliers used their size advantage inside, with Isaiah Mobley scoring well throughout, finishing with 28 points, and the Cavs owning the offensive glass. Sam Merrill added 27 points, making six of 12 3s. With the exception of one run in the second quarter when the Rockets made six consecutive 3s, they could not shoot well enough to keep up.
The Rockets were playing from behind from the start. They fell behind 17-4, with the Cavs scoring easily inside, taking advantage of the Rockets’ lack of size since the rotation was trimmed, much as the Jazz had the night before.
The Rockets had made up for that by hitting the most 3s per game in the tournament, averaging 15.2 3-pointers on 37.1 percent shooting in their 5-0 run to the championship game. But the Rockets did not make their first 3 of Monday’s game until 4:22 was left in the first quarter, a Hinton shot that cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 10. The Rockets had made two of 10 shots to start the game, missing their first four 3s.
When the Rockets finally called a timeout down 23-9 with 3:40 remaining in the opening quarter, they had made just four of 14 shots and were just 1-of-7 3-pointers. The Cavs had connected on 10 of 13 shots to open the game, including 3 of 5 from deep.
The Rockets were 2-of-14 on 3-pointers and trailed by 18 five minutes into the second quarter before they suddenly, but only temporarily, found the shooting touch that had put them in Monday’s game.
Whitmore and Matt Mayer connected on consecutive 3s to start a run of six consecutive made 3pointers. Jermaine Samuels Jr. and Trevor Hudgins hit their first long balls of the game before Whitmore and Hudgins knocked down two more.
With a Fletcher Magee jumper, the Rockets had a 14-2 run to cut the 18-point lead to 41-38.
By then, the pattern of the game was largely established. The Cavaliers would seek to run the Rockets off the 3-point line. The Rockets would need to move the ball well enough to get open looks from deep while mixing in some scoring off the dribble, as they got from Samuels against the Thunder and from Hinton against the Jazz.
Samuels and Hinton struggled to finish early, however, leaving the Rockets relying on their 3-point shooting to make up for the Cavaliers’ advantage in the paint.
The Cavaliers led 51-44 at halftime, which was considerably closer than seemed likely through much of the first half. But the Rockets began the second half shooting as poorly as they had to open the first, this time missing at the rim as the Cavs rebuilt their 18-point lead and took a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter.
By then, with the exception of that run of six consecutive made 3-pointers, the Rockets had made three of 22 shots from deep. The Rockets never challenged again, with the Cavaliers scoring easily throughout while the scoring that put the Rockets in the final game arriving only for one brief cameo.