Shorthanded team can’t halt skid
Absence of VanVleet, Şengün proves too much to overcome in final game of winless road trip
ATLANTA — Aaron Holiday went the length of the floor, saw an opening and then threw down a slam through a Jalen Johnson foul that had the Rockets on their feet in amazement as much as appreciation.
Jeff Green knocked down 3s. Jalen Green and Jock Landale grabbed rebounds. Nate Williams played. He even had a couple dunks, one more spectacular than Holiday’s.
Somehow, that was not going to be the Rockets’ formula for success.
They gave it a run. With Williams, who was recalled from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Saturday, scoring eight points in his first four minutes before Holiday and Green put in 3s, the Rockets cut a 15-point lead to six. But they could not get the stops they needed down the stretch with the Hawks holding on 122-113 to send the Rockets home with an 0-4 road trip.
In a season that Alperen Şengün and Fred VanVleet have looked irreplaceable, they often were. But they were needed most to help put up the sort of numbers that were needed to keep pace with the Hawks.
The Rockets had players step up. Jalen Green had a career-high 14 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists, scoring 26 points for his first tripledouble. Jeff Green’s 19 points and four 3s were season highs. Landale had a season-high nine rebounds.
Holiday made 7 of his 10 shots for 18 points. Jabari Smith Jr. had career highs in steals and blocked shots.
But the Rockets’ remaining starters from their usual lineup, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Smith, were a combined 5-for-25 on 3s, holding the Rockets back as they tried to complete a fourthquarter comeback.
The Rockets immediately showed they would not concede the game to their injuries or the early morning arrival after playing in Toronto on Friday.
A night after the Rockets opened the game in Toronto in slow motion, rapidly falling into a deep hole, the shorthanded version of the Rockets could not have asked for a much better start. With their customary playmakers out, Jalen Green initiated offense. But more than that, they spent much of the quarter getting in the open court after Hawks misses.
The Rockets’ defense held the Hawks to 28.6% shooting in the first quarter, though the Hawks misfiring on good looks had a lot to do with it. The Rockets closed the quarter outscoring the Hawks 24-7 in a stretch that lasted nearly seven minutes.
The Hawks did seem likely to begin making the shots they had been missing. When they did, the Rockets went against a set defense and bogged down badly.
After the Hawks misfired on the shots they want to take in the first quarter, the Rockets couldn’t get their shots in the second quarter. The Rockets made just six of their 21 shots in the quarter, as the Hawks went from a 12-point deficit to a 57-49 lead.
When the Hawks opened the second half as they had the second quarter, with a 7-0 run, they had a 15-point lead. And the Rockets were struggling to get the stops they’d need to get their offense started.
Stat leaders
• Points — Rockets: Jalen Green, 26. Hawks: Dejounte Murray, 34.
• Rebounds — Rockets: Jalen Green, 14. Hawks: Onyeka Okongwu, Bogdan Bogdanovic,
7.
• Assists — Rockets: Jalen Green, 10. Hawks: Trae Young, 8.
A number to note
• 9 — Stocks for Smith, with a career-high four steals and a careerhigh five blocked shots.
In case you missed it
Rockets coach Ime Udoka received his second technical foul in as many nights in the second quarter, arguing that Johnson traveled on a drive a few possessions after the Rockets’ Amen
Thompson had traveled.
That gives Udoka nine technical fouls this season and the Rockets an unusually, and likely unwanted, distinction.
Udoka leads all NBA coaches in technical fouls. Brooks leads players with 11.
The NBA issues players or coaches a one-game suspension at 16 technical fouls and another onegame suspension for every two technical fouls that follow.
In the bonus
With Şengün out, Jeff Green got his fifth start of the season, his first as a center, which also changed the Rockets’ rotation off the bench.
Landale, who had played in just one of their previous six games and then for just 61⁄2 minutes last weekend in Minnesota, came off the bench and played as the Rockets had expected when they made him one of their free agent additions last summer. In one respect, he was better.
In 91⁄2 first-half minutes, Landale had a season-high nine rebounds, two shy of his career high.
Despite his limited role, the Rockets were not surprised. Udoka said before the game that Landale has been more active in the few minutes he has received than earlier in the season when he was coming back from an offseason ankle injury and from a concussion, and he also noted that Landale has looked good in the post-practice scrimmages the Rockets have with players that are not playing regularly.
“He’s working off the court a ton to stay sharp and stay ready for his opportunity, and I think you’ve seen that a little bit more even in the games he’s gotten short stints,” Udoka said. “A night like tonight is a really good opportunity.”
Up next
The Rockets return home to face the Knicks on Monday their final home game before the All-Star break.