SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 When the Houston Rockets thought their streak of games with 30 or more assists had finally come to an end Sunday night, they didn\u2019t hesitate to throw the person they thought was at fault under the bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmen (Thompson) couldn\u2019t make an alley-oop layup,\u201d Rockets coach Ime Udoka said jokingly after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Amen) airballed the layup,\u201d Kevin Durant added during his postgame scrum when asked about the streak.<\/p>\n
Thompson did, in fact, flub a wide-open alley-oop with less than seven minutes in the fourth quarter after misjudging how close he was to the basket. But he can sleep well because, in the end, his mistake didn\u2019t ruin the streak after all.<\/p>\n
Once the NBA updated the box score, the Rockets had, indeed, finished with exactly 30 assists in a hard-fought 117-116 victory over a Golden State Warriors team that was energized by the return of Stephen Curry<\/a> following a 27-game absence.<\/p>\n After a slow start, Curry went on one of his patented heaters that brought the Warriors back from a 14-point deficit and even put them ahead by a point with 19.6 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n But fittingly, the Rockets drew up a gorgeous play on their final possession that ended with Durant passing to Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn under the basket for a 4-foot floater that handed Houston its sixth straight win \u2014 all with 30 or more assists.<\/p>\n \u201cThese last couple weeks, we\u2019ve been playing a solid brand of ball, so we wanted to build on that,\u201d Durant said. \u201cI like how we weathered the storm. \u2026 I like that we stayed poised and we were able to make great plays down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n Houston\u2019s 30-assist streak is tied for its longest since 1986. These Rockets are also one game away from tying their longest streak in franchise history, which was set in 1979.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no coincidence that this streak coincides with Houston\u2019s longest winning streak of the season. The Rockets (49-29) changed some things up on offense and suddenly found a spark that has them playing their best basketball.<\/p>\n They\u2019re playing fast. They\u2019re playing with physicality. They\u2019re playing with confidence. And, most importantly, they\u2019re playing together.<\/p>\n For most of the season, the Rockets were known for how slow they were in half-court sets and how dependent they were on Durant and \u015eeng\u00fcn to win in isolation situations just to create good looks. That overreliance on one-on-one basketball played a huge part in the Rockets becoming notorious for how easily they\u2019d fold late in games once teams forced the ball away from Durant.<\/p>\n As recently as their losses to the Los Angeles Lakers on March 16 and the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 25, the Rockets were still floundering late in games, incapable of finding the right counters when teams trapped Durant.\u00a0After the coaching staff made a few tweaks to the offense and put a greater emphasis on off-ball movement and spacing, Houston is suddenly carving teams up.<\/p>\n The increased confidence on offense couldn\u2019t have come at a better time, with the start of the playoffs less than two weeks away.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of changed the offense a little bit,\u201d \u015eeng\u00fcn said. \u201cWe move the ball more. Playing with the flash actions and all that, it helps everybody. The ball touches everybody\u2019s hands, and that\u2019s why I think we\u2019re winning lately. Playing good basketball. We\u2019re already a good defensive team. When we solve the problems with the offense, I think we\u2019re really a great team.\u201d<\/p>\n It was also fitting that the final play in Sunday\u2019s win involved Durant and \u015eeng\u00fcn playing off each other in a crucial moment. Their unselfish play has fueled the offensive resurgence, and they\u2019re well aware that for this team to make noise in the playoffs, they have to be the driving force.<\/p>\n Durant had 31 points, eight rebounds and eight assists against the Warriors. \u015eeng\u00fcn had 24 points, six rebounds and seven assists. It was the eighth time this season that Durant and \u015eeng\u00fcn each accounted for at least seven assists in the same game.<\/p>\n As \u015eeng\u00fcn has gotten healthier and Durant has settled more into his facilitating role, the Rockets have found the identity on offense that\u2019s eluded them all year. It also helps that players like Jabari Smith, Reed Sheppard and a few others have been hitting shots at a high rate lately.<\/p>\n But those shots aren\u2019t just going in by coincidence. Role players make shots at a higher rate when they\u2019re involved in the offense and when there\u2019s a certain flow dictating how the ball is being moved around.\u00a0Those guys aren\u2019t just standing around watching Durant and \u015eeng\u00fcn anymore, and it\u2019s made life easier for them and for the stars.<\/p>\n Houston will have to keep this up in closing out the regular season to make it seem more like a paradigm shift rather than a trend. But based on the way the Rockets are talking and how much they\u2019re enjoying this recent success, it\u2019s becoming easier to believe that they have evolved at the perfect time.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re playing faster, especially when we\u2019ve got Reed and Amen in together. Our off-ball (movement) has continued to work well for us,\u201d Udoka said. \u201cThe turnovers are the things that hamper us. \u2026 That\u2019s the thing we\u2019ve got to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n The play Udoka drew up for the game-winning bucket also offered a glimpse into the coaching staff\u2019s evolution in using Durant in big moments \u2014 and the lessons learned from some of the failures he experienced earlier in the season.<\/p>\n For much of the season, the Rockets\u2019 solution late in games was to give Durant the ball at the top of the key against a favorable matchup and let him figure it out. With a scorer as talented as Durant, that strategy tends to yield positive results more times than not.<\/p>\n But teams reacted by sending hard double-teams at Durant, which forced him to look elsewhere. The stagnant response from everyone else in the offense usually left him on an island. There were also times when Durant rushed to get rid of the ball before the double-teams arrived, resulting in turnovers or passes that left his teammates in spots where they couldn\u2019t create an advantage.<\/p>\n On Houston\u2019s final possession against the Warriors, Durant started at half court and got a running start before he received the dribble-handoff from \u015eeng\u00fcn. That made it difficult for Golden State to get multiple bodies in front of Durant before he got his momentum going toward the basket. Once Draymond Green fully committed to double-teaming Durant, \u015eeng\u00fcn was wide open in front of the rim.<\/p>\n SENGUN WITH THE GO-AHEAD BUCKET \ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n ROCKETS GET A DEFENSIVE STOP AND WIN ON THE ROAD! pic.twitter.com\/J3I5phuEuG<\/a><\/p>\n