Defense a challenge for Nets as well
Back-to-back wins against the Spurs this weekend were not enough to lift the Rockets out of last place in the standings but did allow Houston to match its longest win streak of the season for a fourth time.
The Rockets will be seeking their first threegame win streak Tuesday, when they encounter a Brooklyn Nets team on its first winning streak since trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
The new-look Nets are 4-6 since the Feb. 9 trade deadline and have won their past two games after losing four straight. They recently signed center Nerlens Noel after he was bought out by the Pistons. Noel should be available to play against the Rockets and give the Nets muchneeded size off the bench.
Tuesday’s meeting in Houston is the first this season between the two teams, who will play for the second and final time in Brooklyn on March 29. The Rockets haven’t won a season series against the Nets since 2-0 sweeps in both 2017-18 and 2016-17. The Nets have won five of the past seven meetings.
Here are five things to watch in Tuesday’s game:
Lessons in chemistry
The Nets are obviously still establishing a rhythm and learning how to play together after four members of their current starting lineup were acquired at this season’s trade deadline. Although Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson were teammates together on the Suns, and Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith played together on the Mavericks, chemistry is still being developed among the whole group.
The Rockets did not undergo a massive overhaul at the deadline, but until this week, have rarely had their full rotation healthy and available on the same night. Being at full strength will give coach Stephen Silas a chance to construct his optimal lineup combinations and allow players to build cohesion going into the offseason.
“We need everyone available so our chemistry can be at peak,” Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. said. “With people out, you gotta make adjustments, you gotta figure it out. But when you’re all here, it’s a lot easier, and health is wealth.”
Building Bridges
Since being traded from Phoenix to Brooklyn in exchange for Durant, Bridges is averaging 26.1 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 54 percent from the field, 50 percent on 3-pointers and 91 percent on free throws.
Bridges, who played his first four full NBA seasons for the Suns, is quickly becoming the Nets’ No. 1 scoring option. He has scored 30-plus points in four of his nine games played for Brooklyn, including 38 points to key the Nets’ 28point comeback win over the Celtics and 33 points against the Hornets two days later — with a 19-point first quarter.
Dynamic duo
In four games played post All-Star break, Rockets guard Jalen Green is shooting 47.7 percent from the floor and 45.8 percent from 3-point range. He shot 47.6 percent (38.7 percent on 3-pointers) post AllStar break last season.
Green’s efficiency has increased in part thanks to the return of Porter, who recorded 19 points and a season-high 13 assists Sunday after totaling 22 points and seven assists in his first two games back. The Rockets are 5-3 in games where Porter has at least eight assists.
Got five on it
The Rockets’ poor defense and the limited coverages they can employ with starting center Alperen Sengun have caused problems all season, but Silas went out of his way after Sunday’s win to praise Sengun’s defensive adjustments and his screening.
“He’s definitely picked it up,” Silas said. “He’s done what I wanted on the defensive end, and that’s always good. But when Jalen and (Porter) are out there it makes the game a little bit easier for Alpe and he has a way of making the game a little bit easier for everybody else. There is an adjustment for him because he’s not getting the ball quite as much.”
Sengun recorded consecutive double-doubles against the Spurs, shooting 6-of-9 from the field in both games and averaging 15.5 points, 12 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
The Rockets also took advantage of backup center Usman Garuba’s minutes in those two games to switch defensively, usually with versatile forwards Jae’Sean Tate and Tari Eason also on the floor. Garuba has the ability to defend smaller players if he gets switched off a screen, whether by encroaching on the ball handler’s space on the perimeter or by looming to block shots on drives.
Prioritizing the paint
The Rockets and Nets have the fourth-worst and fifth-worst 3-point defenses in the NBA, with opponents shooting above a 37percent clip behind the arc against both teams. The tradeoff for Houston, though, is that the purposeful emphasis on protecting the rim has worked out.
The Rockets limit opponents to an average of 47.8 paint points per game, sixth-fewest in the NBA.
“We were giving up too many layups, dunks, fouls at the rim, and we wanted to make sure that we were cutting off the paint and forcing teams to shoot above-the-break threes, which are obviously a tougher shot,” Silas said. “Now, we have to get to our close-outs and close out to those guys and make it tougher. But we wanted to, one, make it a little bit hard for teams to score on us but, two, protect our five man at times so the guards aren’t just lining them up and going downhill.”
The Rockets also hammer the paint on offense, where they scored 74 points in the paint in backto-back games against the Spurs. In the last 10 games, the Rockets lead the NBA in paint scoring while the Nets rank last.
Brooklyn’s overall defense cratered post-trade deadline, as the Nets rank in the league’s bottom half in opponent paint points and last in defensive rating since Feb. 9.