Loss of Green, Porter taking a toll
PORTLAND, Ore. — Rookie guard TyTy Washington walked into shootaround Friday morning and saw something he had never seen in his few short months in the NBA: his name scrawled on the whiteboard as one of the Rockets’ starters.
“Oh, wow,” he said. “Everybody dreams about it, so just happy I get to say I accomplished that one dream.”
Washington’s excitement was not diminished because his opportunity came at the expense of Rockets starting guard Jalen Green, who missed Friday’s 116-101 loss to the Warriors with a strained groin.
Green’s injury, suffered in the last game before the All-Star break, coincided with that of guard Kevin Porter Jr., who has been sidelined since Jan. 11 while nursing a hurt big toe. Both were listed as out on the Rockets’ midday injury report for Sunday’s game at Portland.
Their overlapping injuries have left last-place Houston to try to replace the production of two starters. Before his injury, Porter accounted for 17.6 percent of the team’s points and 17.4 percent of shot attempts. For Green, it was 18.5 percent of points and 18.8 percent of shots.
“There’s definitely a huge adjustment,” forward Jae’Sean Tate said. “I mean, those are our two main scorers and ball handlers. But we’ve had a great next-man-up mentality, and we have a young team, so we’re flying around playing hard, and hopefully, after the break, we can continue to see improvements from last game to this game.”
As individual adjustments go, the Rockets will rely extra on Washington, who averaged 12.7 minutes in a reserve role through his first 23 games played. In his first start of the season Friday against the Warriors, he played 34 minutes and scored 15 points with three 3-pointers, four assists and one turnover. The Rockets as a group had a season-low seven turnovers.
“(Coach Stephen Silas) and the rest of the guys in the starting group was just telling me, encouraging me to use my voice,” Washington said. “They’re gonna listen to me because I’m the point guard. So going into the game, that was my biggest focus on the offensive end: just getting us out in transition, pushing the ball up the court, and really just being vocal.”
Center Alperen Sengun has also become an even more integral hub for Houston’s offense, even if that also means he receives increased attention from opposing defenses. Sengun said he has been frustrated with his own performance in the last six or seven games, noting his inefficiency in defending pick-and-rolls and that teams are collapsing their defense around the paint to keep him from scoring.
The Rockets run more pick-and-rolls on offense when Porter and Green are playing than with Washington and backup guard Daishen Nix, who are still developing chemistry with their teammates, in particular Sengun.
“We’re just learning each other right now, but Jalen and KPJ know me, and I know them,” Sengun said. “They know where I’m gonna roll, where I’m gonna be, you know? Daishen and TyTy just need to learn how we’re gonna play (with) each other.”
Given the lack of experience, Silas was pleased overall with how Washington, Nix and Sengun played off one another in the loss to Golden State.
“Pretty good,” Silas said. “I mean, offensively we got more 3s than we have in a while. Alpe made some plays out of the post. They were really clamping down and making it hard for him to score, but those two guys (Washington and Nix) are so aggressive once they catch it, whether it’s to shoot or drive. So it was more off of his post-ups that we were able to get those guys kind of playing together, rather than pickand-roll, last night. So we’ll see, but pretty good.”
Nix, who started five games as Porter’s replacement before taking a back seat to Washington, said the upside of the current injuries is the development of the Rockets’ other young players.
“The players that don’t play as much are getting more minutes, and then they just get in the rhythm in the game, and then we’re meshing together pretty well,” Nix said. “We’ve just got to pick up the defensive end, and that’s about it.”
The Rockets took to starting Tate in the backcourt alongside Green after Eric Gordon was traded, giving Tate ball-handling duties formerly handled by Gordon and Porter. But Tate has played multiple positions in the four games he has started, everything from point guard to small-ball center.
The constant change might give someone else whiplash — but not so with Tate, a player prized and praised for his versatility during his three NBA seasons playing insert-position-here for the Rockets.
He has helped lead a collective effort to pick up the slack amid injuries. Starting forward K.J. Martin is a key contributor, averaging 15.2 points on 9.7 shots over his last six games before Sunday. Washington and Nix are shooting more, too, especially from 3-point range.
Tate averaged 8.3 field goal attempts over his last six games after averaging 6.4 in the 12 games prior, a result born both naturally from more playing time (an increase of about four minutes per game) and from intentional effort to fill the void left by Green and Porter.
“When you have two guys out that shoot whatever percentage they shoot of our points, we’ve got to get more shots up to try to score more points,” Tate said. “I’ve been telling our young guys to be confident in the shots they’re taking. I still think we can take more as a unit. And you know, I thought last game we did a really good job of shooting more 3s, but we have to continue on that path to be successful.”