火箭队记：范弗里特、阿门·汤普森、杜兰特、申京与进攻体系

The Rockets enter Friday’s slate of games with a 9-3 record. One of the drivers of their success this fall has been the return of starting point guard Fred VanVleet, who missed the entirety of last season with a torn ACL. He spoke to the NBA on ESPN crew following Houston’s win over Golden State on Wednesday and discussed his return following such a lengthy absence.

“The game was taken away from me for a full year, I think 500 days or something between games, so I’m appreciating every minute,” VanVleet said (YouTube video link). “… You just don’t realize how much you take for granted. There’s no stakes, there’s no consequences when you don’t play. You don’t get to feel the hurt of a loss the same, getting that energy out, being able to get the escape of being on that court for the night, so you miss all those things.”

VanVleet added that he feels like he hasn’t missed a step since returning — that bears out in his statistical output, which is very similar to the numbers he posted during the season before the injury. He’s averaging 13.7 points and 5.6 assists – and just 1.1 turnovers – per game while converting 38.7% of his three-point attempts.

We have more from the Rockets:

• Amen Thompson’s opportunity to test himself defensively against Stephen Curry on Wednesday was cut short, as Curry left the matchup early with an abdominal injury. Still, Thompson put together one of his most complete games of the season, Shankar writes. The fourth-year guard has had the ball in his hands less often this fall than he did last season and has struggled at times to find his role in the offense, but head coach Ime Udoka wants to make sure he still gets his opportunities, and Thompson wants to make sure he’s prepared to attack the right way when he does. “You can’t just decide you’re going to be dunker for the whole game. They throw me so many different matchups. I got a big on me, sometimes I got a small guy,” Thompson said. “So I feel like just getting better at being intentional, depending on what lineup is in, doing what I need to do.”
• While VanVleet’s stabilizing impact has been huge for Houston, they have also been getting great results from the two-man game involving stars Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun, as was on display when they beat the Nuggets 110-100 on Monday, Varun Shankar writes for the Houston Chronicle. According to Sengun, Durant told him to start slipping his screens into open space when Durant was blitzed coming off the screen, which allowed the talented big man to pick apart the remaining Nuggets defenders in a four-on-three situation. “He’s a smart player. He sees everything,” Durant said of Sengun. “When he catches the ball, he sees both corners. He sees the lob. He sees his shot. So now it’s on him to make the right decision every time. And to be honest, I feel like ever since I’ve been playing with him, about 95-96% of the time, he makes a solid decision.”
• The biggest impact from VanVleet’s return is how it has allowed the Rockets to settle into a more natural offensive rhythm than they had last season, when the offensive game plan tended to revolve around getting the ball to Durant and getting out of the way, Matt Young writes for The Houston Chronicle. This year, they’ve been able to get the ball moving and share the load in ways that make the team very hard to defend — that versatile offensive attack was on display in the Warriors game, when six Rockets scored at least 13 points. “You don’t know whose day it is as a defense,” said Durant. “When you get hit with waves like that, you don’t know. You might have to double somebody else tonight. You might have to show a different coverage or a different scheme because one guy got hot. When you’ve got five or six guys in double figures, then the next team that’s scouting us, they can’t have just one thing to stand on, they’ve got to be able to switch it up throughout the game.”