{"id":561108,"date":"2026-01-26T03:18:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/561108\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T03:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:18:22","slug":"gutsy-effort-in-win-at-detroit-rockets-find-attention-to-detail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/561108\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gutsy effort\u2019: In win at Detroit, Rockets find attention to detail"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT — In just over 24 hours, the Houston Rockets<\/a> went through an emotional rollercoaster. It began with frustration for not finishing off the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> in an overtime loss<\/a> and became jubilation after Friday\u2019s 111-104 win over the Pistons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In defeating the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference, the victory showed the resilience of a Rockets unit led by head coach Ime Udoka \u2014 who did not allow the unusual back-to-back to be an excuse for his team not to give their all.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was a gutsy effort,\u201d Udoka said postgame. \u201cI think everyone was a little disappointed (Thursday) with the finish. We wanted to get at least one on this road trip. We never talked about the back-to-back or the fatigue or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to come out and play solid basketball and get that feeling from last night out of our system. So, I think that was the goal, and we knew from the start that it felt a little bit different with our physicality and attention to detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Thursday, when the Rockets blew a nine-point lead to the Sixers with less than seven minutes left in regulation, Houston used a 34-20 burst in the third quarter to build a 14-point lead entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

With a combined 18 points in that third quarter, it was the hot shooting of forward Kevin Durant (10) and second-year guard Reed Sheppard (8) that helped Houston build a buffer.<\/p>\n

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That duo has found synergies this season. Sheppard is able to shoot from virtually any spot on the court, which draws defenses to him and gives Durant more one-on-one opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a dynamic shooter that can get hot, and (when) other teams see him hit two or three 3s in a row, they are going to be closer to his body and not going to leave his body on screens,\u201d Durant said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey try to be physical with him, which just opens it up for everybody. When you are a threat at the 3-point line, and you make a couple in a row, it puts the other coach in a bind (and) the other team in a bind. When they try to run him off the line, Reed is good at getting to the rim, making those layups. So, when he comes into the game, we try to keep him aggressive and get him going fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last five games, in just 22.8 minutes per game off the bench, Sheppard has averaged 15.6 points per game while shooting 44.2% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

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The No. 3 overall selection in the 2024 NBA draft has learned a lot about spacing and being more aggressive when he is on the court with Durant this season, and he is taking full advantage of all his opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being able to be a threat to shoot,\u201d Sheppard said of his floor spacing for Durant. \u201cBeing able to shoot from anywhere is big to get the defender out of the gap a little bit… so that he (Durant) has more space than he usually does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pistons (32-11) remain at No. 1 in the East standings<\/a>, while Houston (27-16) is at No. 4 in the West. The Rockets have won four of their last five games, overall, and they will look to build on that momentum when they host Memphis (18-25) on Monday night.<\/p>\n

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Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m. Central, and the game will be televised regionally on Space City Home Network<\/a> and nationally via NBA League Pass<\/a>. For Houston, the matchup versus the Grizzlies opens a two-game homestand at Toyota Center, where the Rockets are 15-3 this season.<\/p>\n

More: Kevin Durant praises Houston\u2019s poise after statement win at Detroit<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: \u2018Gutsy effort\u2019: In win at Detroit, Rockets find attention to detail<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT — In just over 24 hours, the Houston Rockets went through an emotional rollercoaster. It began with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,1272,938,293,6,207,297,1081,211,76455,1015],"class_list":{"0":"post-561108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-ime-udoka","13":"tag-kevin-durant","14":"tag-memphis","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","17":"tag-pistons","18":"tag-reed-sheppard","19":"tag-rockets","20":"tag-sarge-media-llc","21":"tag-the-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115959241517973212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}