Rockets’ six-game win streak comes to crashing halt in OKC.
Six-game winning streak halted in less-than-intense rematch with OKC
The Rockets could not consider themselves caught in a trap game. It cannot be a trap if everyone could see it coming.
Even when the Rockets were still reveling in the 28 3-pointers they poured in to blow out the Thunder on Monday, Rockets coach Stephen
Silas seemed more worried about Wednesday than happy about Monday.
He had good reason.
The Rockets never showed the intensity of that victory or the six-game winning streak it completed, could not come close to matching the marksmanship of the rout and rarely offered a sign of how they had been rolling. The Thunder, playing without their starting backcourt, blasted the Rockets 104-87 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City in the second game between the teams in three nights. The Thunder (9-11) did it mostly by playing much harder, with the determination of a team seeking to avenge a bad loss, holding the Rockets (10-10) to their fewest points of the season — 49 shy of Monday’s total.
“Obviously, after the first game (between the teams,) it’s going to be a harder game,” Silas said before the Rockets did not respond to his warnings. “We’re going to have to have attention to details, have to make adjustments. I’m sure they’re making adjustments.
“Playing the same team twice presents problems. They’re not going to be giving up a lot of the things they gave up in the first game. Part of the thing is making sure that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do on both ends of the floor, just setting ourselves up for success based on how we play.”
Instead, the blowout two days earlier set them up to be smacked.
After putting up 48 points in Monday’s first quarter — the second consecutive game in which they posted a 48point quarter — the Rockets needed three quarters to score 58. They made just 33.8 percent of their shots, 19.4 percent of their 3s through three quarters, adding 16 turnovers to the missed shots.
They had 15 points in the third quarter, their fewest of the season and second fewest of any quarter. In just over three fourth-quarter minutes, the Rockets were down 30 and ready to rest starters for the second half of the back-to-back — other than Victor Oladipo (19 points), who will take Thursday night off.
John Wall sat out the first half of the back-toback, moving Eric Gordon (team-high 22 points) into the starting lineup. He was the only Rocket that played well before the bench was cleared.
The rest of the starters combined to make 14 of 41 shots, with only Oladipo joining Gordon in double figures — and Oladipo made just 8 of 24 shots, 1 of 8 3-pointers, to do it.
With Shai GilgeousAlexander and George Hill out, Hamidou Diallo got his first start and had 16 points and nine rebounds while Darius Bazley added 18 points and 12 boards.
The Rockets did not expect things to go as easily as Monday’s 135-106 blowout of the Thunder. But the warning signs were everywhere — from the slim chances they would shoot 3s as they did in a franchise-record pace, making 28 of 52, to the likelihood that Oklahoma City would bounce back. They did not anticipate crashing as they did in most of the first half.
The defense was nowhere near as disruptive in the first half as it had been during the winning streak, but the Thunder did not light them up. OKC made 42.9 percent of its first-half shots, 33.3 percent of its 3s.
Offensively, however, the Rockets were a disaster, careless with the ball and as frigid from deep as they had been scorching two nights earlier.
After making their first two 3-pointers to hint at replicating Monday’s 3-point shooting roll, they made just 4 of 23 the rest of the half. After committing just 13 turnovers Monday, they had 12 in the first half, leading to 13 Thunder points.
With Wall out, Oladipo missed all five of his first half 3-pointers. Other than centers Christian Wood (eight points, six rebounds) and DeMarcus Cousins (10 points, five boads), the Rockets made 2 of 19 3s in the half.
When the Thunder took their largest lead at 50-31 with 3:24 left in the half, they had rolled through a 33-9 run. But the Rockets recovered just a bit with Gordon scoring nine of his 15 first-half points to pull within 54-43 at halftime.
That gave the Rockets a chance to attempt to make the sort of corrections in 14 halftime minutes that the Thunder made in 48 hours, though they had to climb out of a hole, rather than just start over.
Instead, they kept digging.