Shorthanded Rockets fall to Hornets 119-94.
Absence of 3 key players eventually catches up in form of team-record seven-point fourth quarter
There might have been signs of the Rockets’ offensive crash that was coming. The first was that they were playing without their three most indispensable offensive players.
For three quarters Monday night, the Rockets had largely replaced their most irreplaceable scorers, struggling more to slow the Hornets’ shooting than to manufacture ways to keep pace. It never seemed likely to last.
And when the short-handed Rockets cracked, they fell apart. They missed their first 10 shots of the fourth quarter as the Hornets rolled to a 119-94 romp at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., to send Houston to its third loss in four games.
The Rockets managed just seven fourthquarter points, matching the fewest they have ever scored in a quarter, as they made just two of 18 fourth-quarter shots.
With John Wall and Eric Gordon sitting out the first half of the backto-back and with the void left by Christian Wood’s absence increasingly conspicuous, the Rockets found enough scoring, often from unlikely sources, to keep pace through three quarters.
But they were not slowing the Hornets enough, and the wheels came off the Rockets’ offense to start the fourth quarter. It had always seemed a matter of time.
Without Wall and Gordon, when Victor Oladipo sat to start the fourth quarter, the Rockets had few options to generate offense. And even when he returned, the Rockets were either stuck on the perimeter or forced to drive into the teeth of the Charlotte de
fense waiting in the paint.
It took the Rockets nearly eight fourth-quarter minutes to make a shot, an Oladipo 3-pointer breaking through. By then, the Hornets had soared through a 22-1 run, from the last shot of the third quarter to when Rockets coach Stephen Silas began clearing his bench, to build a 19-point lead.
Oladipo led the Rockets with 21 points but made just seven of 18 shots, three of 10 3s. The rest of the starting lineup combined for five second-half points. Ben McLemore added 15 points, but they all came in the first half.
The Hornets had little difficulty handling that, with LaMelo Ball making seven of 12 3-pointers for 24 points as Charlotte went 19 of 41 on 3s, one shy of the most the Rockets have allowed in a game this season.
The Rockets got hot for a few second-quarter minutes, with McLemore especially driving them from a seven-point deficit to a three-point lead. But it had been a struggle to generate enough offense to keep pace with the Hornets, who were scoring quickly and easily.
After the Rockets cooled off late in the half, making just one of their last six 3-pointers, the Hornets brought a 64-60 lead into the second half.
By then, the Rockets likely would have been more concerned with slowing the Hornets than finding more offense from their short-handed rotation. They had stayed as close as they had largely because McLemore had moved from out of the rotation to give them 15 points in eight minutes, making four of five 3pointers while the makeshift starting lineup went 2 of 11.
The Hornets, however, were generating good looks from the start, with Ball getting 15 points with six assists in the first half and Gordon Hayward adding 15 points. The Hornets made 10 of 21 3s in the first half before Ball opened the third quarter with his fifth 3-pointer, the most of his rookie season, with all but 12 seconds of the second half still to play.
As much as the Rockets had found scoring with Wood, Gordon and Wall out, if it was not obvious before, the Rockets got a reminder that somehow they would have to get a hold of the Hornets at the 3-point line.
They slowed Charlotte a bit when Ball took a fourth foul to stop a break. The Rockets rallied back from down eight to tie the game before Malik Monk ended the third quarter the way it began with another 3-pointer.
When the Rockets’ offense broke down to start the fourth quarter, the Hornets kept on scoring until a close game got out of hand. The Rockets went from struggling to find the firepower to keep pace to having none at all.