The Houston Rockets just lost a game that could be in contention for their worst loss of the season regardless of how the rest of the year goes. Many of the players came out flat offensively; Houston’s top players scoring high point totals mostly through the high volume of opportunities they were taking.
Kevin Durant had an inefficient 32-point game against the Utah Jazz that wasn’t enough to save the Rockets from the defensive lapses that were present throughout the game’s entirety.
It proved that regardless of how talented Durant and Alperen Sengun are, they can’t save the Rockets when the team isn’t playing connected on defense.
The offense proved not to be the problem as the game was winding down. Sengun and Durant broke the 30-point threshold, and Amen Thompson had a strong outing with 23 points and a solid night at the free throw line.
Jabari Smith Jr. scored 12 points, Aaron Holiday scored 10 points, but no other Rockets scored into double-digits as the team’s top players were counted on to do much of the heavy lifting offensively.
However, their efforts were undermined by a number of open shots for Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, and even Jusuf Nurkic. The Jazz have talented offensive players on the roster, and the Rockets often left players like Markkanen open for threes and shots within the arc as well.
Markkanen has been having a career year, and is proving he doesn’t need much space to operate and become an effective scorer for the Jazz. Failing to guard him tightly or contest his shots is a recipe for disaster, and the result for Houston led to disaster because of their lax defense around the court.
The main lesson the Rockets should take away from a flat game like this is that the offense won’t always be able to bail the team out if they aren’t also competing at a high level defensively.
Houston has been one of the top scoring teams all season, and its defense has climbed since the season began. However, the Rockets identity has rested on the team’s defense for years, and they won’t be able to beat the league’s top teams unless their defense is elite.
Playing with poor defense is how the Rockets can get beat by teams that likely won’t be in the playoff picture by the end of the season. They can’t afford many performances like their night against the Jazz, but they can use this game as a reference point to understand the importance of keeping their defensive efforts as high as their emphasis on offense.