Rockets flash potential in closing out Suns
With 9.1 seconds left and the Rockets holding a two-point lead on Friday, second-year forward Jabari Smith Jr. went to the line to just about ice the game. His first free throw bounced off the front of the rim and crawled in. The second missed. The Suns had life.
Just 2.6 seconds later, with the lead down to one, Smith was back at the line because that’s where he wanted to be.
Swish. Swish.
With confidence oozing, confidence that he had not shown seconds earlier, Smith had displayed progress in an instant, and the Rockets were a few moments from finishing off the Suns, 114-110, in a win they desperately needed after bad losses going into and coming out of the All-Star break.
“I was just ready for it,” Smith said. “I wanted the ball and was ready to be aggressive. I was ready for (those free throws). I wanted them back real bad.”
It would be too much to think that the Rockets grew up with one good win, much less that they matured in the few seconds between free throws, even if their 20-year-old forward seemed to take steps in that direction. But the final five minutes could be a sign of progress they had struggled to make all season, even early in the season when wins were coming much more frequently than in recent weeks.
“It’s very valuable,” Rockets veteran center Jeff Green said of the potential lessons from having to win in the clutch. “You learn by having to go through things. For us to get a win like that, against a good team like that, you learn from it. It shows you what you’re capable of.
“That’s considered growth. We did our job. We came out. We executed like we’re supposed to. We stuck with the game plan and got the dub.”
Having overcome a 16-point first-half deficit to build a lead to 14 in the third quarter in a game neither team shot well enough to sustain runs, the Rockets went into the final five minutes down two. They scored on 10 of 15 possessions. In a quarter in which they made just 6 of 22 shots, they executed well enough with the game on the line to get a few buckets and just enough free throws to fall, taking the win rather than having the Suns let it slip away to them.
The Rockets moved to 8-9 in games decided by five points or fewer. But this was not a game in which they had a late 10-point lead and barely held on, though they did begin the fourth quarter up 13.
Down the stretch, when the Rockets went into the game with a net rating that ranked 24th in the NBA this season in games with a margin of five or fewer points in the final five minutes, going 10-18 in those games, the Rockets outscored the Suns by a rate of 50 points per 100 possessions. They had excelled when they so often had crumbled.
“Especially for us, this is effectively practice with playoff intensity because we need all of these,” Rockets guard Fred VanVleet said. “It’s always better to win while winning. The more experience we can get, the more reps we can get in different situations, tonight was a good test for us against a really good team.
“I think our execution is growing. I think we’re learning where we want to go and get to our spots. Obviously, it’s a luxury to be able to give it to Alpi (Ş engün) and create from there. We had different guys step up and make free throws in clutch moments. We had different situations defensively where we had to execute. This is invaluable experience for this group and
I’m just happy we were able to do all of that while coming out with a win.”
The Rockets were far from perfect down the stretch. Şengün, Smith, VanVleet and Amen Thompson each missed one free throw. They would have liked to get the ball to VanVleet to have him attempt more than one. But they also got good looks. And a night after committing 24 turnovers and in a game in which they had nine in the first half, they had one in the final five minutes.
“We had a lot of free throws,” Şengün said.
“Me, Amen, Jabari. We didn’t miss that much, I think. It was important for young players because in clutch times, it’s hard to make free throws. Even Kevin Durant missed a clutch free throw.
“Every game is important. Playing at home, we didn’t want to lose at home, anymore. It was a great win against a great team.”
This is how they might have to win, even when they get past the stretch of games against the top teams in the west, with two games against the Thunder to be followed by two more against the
Suns. They won with defense (once they escaped another ragged start), a boost off the bench from rookies Thompson and Cam Whitmore, and a strong enough finish to get the win when it could have gone either way.
Rockets coach Ime Udoka would only call the execution late “decent.” The Rockets were able to foul with a three-point lead as they could not in an overtime loss to the Trail Blazers.
“They’re good,” Udoka said of games won in the closing minutes. “Certain ones are more satisfying, to dig them out in certain ways. Being down 16, once you get up 14, you’d like to keep the lead and not make it that close. But we knew they were going to make a run. They have guys who can score at a high level so (Kevin) Durant and (Devin) Booker are going to get it going at some point. But it’s always good for experience to do it that way.”
It was the only way the Rockets could top the
Suns on Friday, with Udoka’s message in the closing minutes to keep doing what they had been doing to move the game to a few last possessions and a few more free throws from theirs.
“Just stay with it,”
Smith said of Udoka’s orders down the stretch. “They took the lead by two. But we just kept playing hard and we got rewarded for it. ‘Just stay with it, play hard, and go take the game.’’