Quick road trip tips off vs. Hornets
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Rockets were angry following Wednesday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, angry at themselves, angry at their misfortune to have a banked in 3-pointer send them to overtime. The question quickly became what they would do about it.
They headed back on the road for a quick back-toback, facing the Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets, teams on the wrong side of .500 but playing better lately than they had been.
The Rockets were in position to have a successful homestand, with a win against the Utah Jazz and a loss when badly shorthanded in the second game of a back-to-back to the Celtics before playing the Trail Blazers. But they let a fourpoint lead slip away in the final half minute of regulation and then flopped in overtime against the Blazers.
3-point ‘D’ struggling
The Hornets have been a middle-of-the-pack 3-point shooting team, hitting a solid 36% but making just 11.9 per game to rank 23rd in the NBA in 3s per game.
That sort of track record did not prevent the Trail Blazers, a worse shooting team than the Hornets, from making 42.9% of their 3-pointers against the Rockets on Wednesday. The Rockets are third in 3-point defense, allowing 34.5% shooting from the 3-point line. But in the past 10 games, they have allowed 38.8% 3-point shooting, ranking 23rd in the NBA in that stretch.
“Slippage guarding the 3point line, that’s one of the main things that really showed up,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said before the Blazers hit 15 3-pointers, even after a 3-of-10 start, on
Wednesday. “I think we’re still guarding the paint at a decent clip. Different teams pose different problems. We had a stretch of tough (teams to) guard.
“The biggest takeaway was teams have really hurt us on the offensive glass and guarding the 3-point line. So, we got to focus on those two things.”
The Trail Blazers scored 23 second-chance points on Wednesday. Though they are second in the league in second-chance scoring, that was more than six points more than they average. Those recent defensive shortcomings are connection with the 3-point line is especially difficult to defend after allowing offensive rebounds.
Jalen Green, however, said the solution is simple.
“It’s effort,” he said of the Rockets’ 3-point defense. “Just got to go out there and do it.”
Rough go on the road
The Rockets did not get well with their return home, losing two of their three games, picking up injuries and falling to 5-7 in Toyota Center since their 11-game home winning streak. But that is nothing compared to their troubles on the road.
After the 1-5 road trip earlier this month, the Rockets are 4-15 on the road this season. Only the Pistons have fewer road wins. Only the Pistons, Wizards and Spurs have worse road records. The Rockets had a threegame losing streak in Charlotte before last season’s win in Spectrum Center.
“You’d like to play well at home and on the road,” Udoka said. “We haven’t had the same record or same type of games on the road, but I don’t think anybody’s thinking more about winning games at home because of that. Want to play well in both, regardless.
“With us being inconsistent on the road this year and being good at home, I think what we’re trying to do is emulate that success, the way we’re playing at home on the road more so than thinking about the home wins only. Got two (games to play) on the road, and I don’t think our approach is any different.”
The Hornets are just 5-14 at home. Only the Pistons, Wizards and Spurs have fewer home wins, though one of the San Antonio wins came against the Rockets and the Pistons lost their home game to the Rockets only when a last-second shot bounced out.
Race to 120 points
The Rockets have been justifiably proud of the defense through much of the season. Not lately. But it still has been better than the Hornets’ defense.
The Rockets began January with the sixth-ranked defense in the NBA. In the 13 games this month, it has ranked 17th and 20th in road games, where the Rockets have allowed 120.6 points per 100 possessions.
The Hornets’ defense has shown signs of improvement this month, ranking 22nd. But overall this season, Charlotte has had the worst defense in the NBA.
The Hornets have been especially poor at defending the 3-point line, allowing 40.1% shooting, the worst 3point defense in the league.
The Rockets appeared to be escaping their shooting slump on Wednesday, making 11 of their 26 3s through three quarters. But they made just 1 of 10 in the fourth quarter and overtime. They are 3-18 this season when they do not make more 3s than opponents.
Who’s in, who’s out
The Hornets will still be without Kyle Lowry, who has yet to play for Charlotte since the trade that sent Terry Rozier to Miami for Lowry and a first-round pick.
The Rockets will have to see who will be coming out of the training room.
The Rockets on Wednesday got Fred VanVleet and Jeff Green back after they missed Sunday’s loss to the Celtics, but Jabari Smith Jr. missed a second game with a sprained left ankle and Jae’Sean Tate was out with a strained left wrist.
With Tari Eason out, that left the Rockets without three players at the same forward position, moving Green into the starting lineup and moving up Jock Landale as a backup center.
Smith is not on the injury report, but he was not on Tuesday or through much of Wednesday before he was ruled out. Tate is questionable.
Reggie Bullock Jr. is questionable with the sore lower back that has kept him out the past four games.
The Hornets are without forward Gordon Hayward and center Mark Williams but were also without center Nick Richards in three games before he returned on Wednesday, scoring 21 points and 10 rebounds as the starting center.
Richards’ return sets up a good matchup with Rockets center Alperen Şengün, who on Wednesday came two assists short of becoming the second-youngest center to get consecutive triple-doubles and the youngest since Alvan Adams in 1975.
2023 draft revisited
After going against the player taken immediately before him in the draft in Wednesday’s game, Rockets guard Amen Thompson will face the player chosen two spots sooner.
Brandon Miller has been playing very well lately, averaging 24.3 points on 57% shooting and 45% 3-point shooting in his past four games, with the Hornets splitting those games.
Thompson played just 14 minutes on Wednesday, with Udoka going with Aaron Holiday for 29⁄2 1 minutes.
But Thompson made 3 of his 5 shots, getting three rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot while Portland’s Scoot Henderson went 4-of-12 from the floor in 24 minutes off the Blazers’ bench.