{"id":571852,"date":"2026-01-31T00:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/571852\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:48:18","slug":"rockets-host-mavericks-amid-ongoing-search-for-consistency-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/571852\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Host Mavericks Amid Ongoing Search for Consistency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Saturday, January 31, the Houston Rockets (29\u201317) are back at Toyota Center to face the Dallas Mavericks (19\u201329) for the second time since the New Year- with consistency still the main ask.<\/p>\n<p>The Rockets split another back-to-back this week, and the two games felt like mirror images. Houston spent 24 hours showing both extremes: first letting a 16-point first-quarter lead slip away at home against the Spurs, then walking into Atlanta and turning the Hawks into a second-half footnote.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday started as close to perfect as it gets. Houston dropped 36 points on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/sas-vs-hou-0022500679\/box-score?period=Q1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:60-percent shooting;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">60-percent shooting<\/a>, hit four threes, and assisted their way into a double-digit lead. Then the tempo flipped. San Antonio sped the game up, Houston got uncomfortable, and the offense started to crumble. After halftime, it fully collapsed. The Spurs took control and the Rockets fell 111-99.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday in Atlanta opened the opposite way. Fatigue showed early, the legs were heavy, and the offense took a full half to find traction. Houston began 0-for-6 and spent much of the first half looking like its offense was still in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Lucky for the Rockets, the Hawks\u2019 basket also had a lid on it, and the score stayed pretty close until halftime. After the break, Houston found real rhythm, turned stops into momentum, and drilled ten threes at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/hou-vs-atl-0022500682?period=1stHalf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:53-percent efficiency;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">53-percent efficiency<\/a>, putting Atlanta to bed 104-86.<\/p>\n<p>Ime Udoka called Wednesday \u201ca tale of two halves,\u201d and honestly\u2026 it applies to both nights., which makes Saturday interesting, because Dallas arrives with its own fresh scar.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks are coming off a 123-121 loss to the Charlotte Hornets- a game where they did plenty right and still lost the only part that matters: the last possession. Dallas owned the paint (60-38) and created extra chances, but a late bad pass with eight seconds left turned into a steal, a foul, and two free throws that decided it. One mistake. One swing. Game over.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the warning for Houston. This stretch can\u2019t be about playing to the opponent\u2019s record. It has to be about playing to the moment. The Rockets can\u2019t let a hot start turn into complacency, and they can\u2019t wait until halftime to remember who they are.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday is a litmus test. If Dallas controls the tone at any point in these 48 minutes, that\u2019s not \u201cjust one game.\u201d That\u2019s the same problem showing up again. And there may be cause for concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, January 31, the Houston Rockets (29\u201317) are back at Toyota Center to face the Dallas Mavericks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[676,7,473,686,149,4057,677,194,166,6,969,534,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-571852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-dallasmavericks","14":"tag-hawks","15":"tag-houston-rockets","16":"tag-mavericks","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-san-antonio","19":"tag-spurs","20":"tag-the-mavericks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115986963720562213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571852","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=571852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}