First 3-game streak within reach
Wednesday’s win over the Thunder gave the Rockets consecutive victories for the first time since Dec. 11-13 and only the second time this season.
The mood at practice Thursday, one day before the Rockets host the Raptors at Toyota Center, appeared jovial.
Coach Stephen Silas would rather have you think that is coincidence more so than direct correlation.
“Naturally, it’s different than the losing streak, but generally we come in here and you wouldn’t know whether we won or lost, and that’s kind of a goal,” Silas said. “We want to be an even team as far as our preparation and as far as our attitude. But yeah, after a couple wins, it feels good.”
Center Bruno Fernando added, “I think we understand where we are. We try not to get too high or too low, and we just try to come in every day with the mindset of trying to get better.”
The Rockets will look to build on that momentum against the Raptors, who arrive in Houston on a two-game losing streak and with four wins in their last 10 games. Toronto was victorious in the previous meeting with Houston in November, when Jalen Green led the Rockets in scoring and Jabari Smith Jr. led the team in rebounding during a 116-109 loss at Scotiabank Arena.
Green missed the past two games with a bruised calf and is unlikely to play Friday, Silas said.
But the Rockets are hopeful that Smith, who took a foul to the ribs during the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game, will be available against the Raptors.
Here are five things to watch in Friday’s game:
Going to the glass
The Rockets and Thunder grabbed a whopping 24 offensive rebounds apiece in Wednesday’s game, a feeding frenzy that produced a combined 51 second-chance points. It was the most offensive rebounds the Rockets had allowed since the Raptors grabbed 22 against them in November.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the Raptors raided the glass for a season-high 25 offensive rebounds in a loss to the Jazz. Toronto ranks fourth in the NBA in offensive rebounding average (12.8), fourth in offensive rebounding percentage (31.7) and third in second-chance points (13.8). Houston leads the league in both offensive rebounding statistics and is second in secondchance points.
Neither team is great at defensive rebounding, but the Raptors are far more effective at limiting their opponents’ ability to turn rebounds into putbacks. They allow the fourthfewest second-chance
points per game (12.2), whereas the Rockets rank 13th (13.4).
Play the way you feel it
With both members of the Rockets’ starting backcourt out Wednesday, Daishen Nix made his second consecutive start and third of the season. The second-year point guard handled the ball alongside veteran Eric Gordon, who noted that Nix appeared more comfortable. Nix dished three assists and scored 8 points on 3-of-9 shooting.
Nix was also among a trio of Rockets players who took turns guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and limited the Thunder star to an inefficient 7of-23 shooting night. Nix matched a career high with two blocks, one on Gilgeous-Alexander and another on Aaron Wiggins, and pulled down a career-high seven rebounds, all on the defensive end.
“More minutes, it’s just been giving me more confidence just to go out there and just be more aggressive,” Nix said. “And then the defensive end is especially where I do best at on the court. That’s what makes me stay on the court more.”
Putting the clamps on
The Rockets have outshot the opposition in each of the past seven games, tying for their longest streak in a single season since an eightgame span from Jan. 28Feb. 19, 2014. Houston made 47.6 percent of its shots in that span but also held opponents to a league-low 44 percent from the field.
Silas said the Rockets’ defense has come along recently, in particular when it concerns limiting shots at the rim and contesting shots. In the paint, outside the restricted area, Houston held opponents to 34.6 percent shooting over the past seven games, just 27.3 percent on shots taken between five and nine feet from the basket. Silas said that on Wednesday, he noticed the Rockets’ attention to detail and focus in morning shootaround carried over to the game, and he hopes that will become a trend.
Steady Freddy
While the Rockets have adopted a point-guard-bycommittee approach amid injuries to Kevin Porter Jr. and Green, the Raptors have received tremendous play from veteran floor general Fred VanVleet.
VanVleet, who is a free agent after this season, notched the second tripledouble of his seven-year career Wednesday against the Jazz.
Whether the Raptors are open to moving him at next week’s trade deadline is unclear, but VanVleet is certainly boosting his value. In his past nine games, he is averaging 26.6 points and has scored 20-plus points seven times.
Martin’s new standard
KJ Martin had one of the best months of his three-year career in January, averaging 13.1 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 56.4 percent overall and 37.5 percent from deep in 14 games. A lot of that improvement can be traced to his increase in playing time.
Martin started the past 10 games while averaging 14 points and 8.2 rebounds in 31.2 minutes per game. He has scored at least 15 points in eight of the past 14 games after doing so seven times in the first 37 games of the season. And he has grabbed at least six rebounds in each of the past nine games, tied for the longest streak of his career.
“When you get more minutes, you get more confident, but I’m definitely more confident in him,” Silas said. “He doesn’t try to go outside of his role. He doesn’t try to do things that he’s not capable of doing. But that list of things that he’s capable of doing continues to increase as far as, when he first got here, he was like, one dribble to the rim. Now it’s three dribbles, and the low-side screening and rolling, and the crashing the offensive glass, and the versatility on the defensive end, and mixing in a 3 here and there and forcing closeouts to where he can drive the ball. So yeah, he stays within his game, stays within his role and, as a result, has had some success.”