火箭季前赛收官战 116-89 大胜雷霆

I had thought that both the Rockets and Thunder might not play their starters at all tonight. Both teams had a hefty number of “Game Time Decisions” and “Day To Day” players. It seemed like it might be a slightly nonsensical clash of deep benches, and guys who are likely headed to the GLeague.

This was not to be. We certainly saw some deep roster players in action tonight, but the first quarter, and much of the second was more or less starters and rotational players, minus a couple of absences. We didn’t see Steven Adams for the Rockets, nor Chet Holmgren or Jaylin The Other Williams for the Thunder.

The first quarter went the Rockets way, as neither team could really hit jumpers, but Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun could dunk the ball at the rim pretty easily. The R0ckets ended up winning the quarter 33-15. The beginning of this game, the Rockets offense was basically just dunks by Amen on cuts, and clever passes from Sengun. Nice to see that again.

The Thunder came back in the second quarter, winning it 32 to 21, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen The Main Williams got going a bit.

The third quarter saw a switch from starting players (Durant came out at the half in street clothes.) to rotational players, and the Rockets Bogdan Bogdanovich, Tari Eason, and Reed Sheppard all made shots, particularly BogBog, who was 5-8 from three, and looked to be moving very well.

We also saw minutes with Marcus Smart, but he wasn’t particularly effective tonight, going 0-3 and notching 2 assists to 2 turnovers. Fred VanVleet was the primary point, and in the distribution role he was again a sight for sore eyes, logging 8 assists and 0 turnovers. His shooting was not as good as the first game, as he went 3-13 overall. He needs to keep shooting, though, as he’s been away from basketball for a year, and we need to see if some consistency will return to his shooting.

We’re also going to have to see if the idea of Marcus Smart being the secondary point guard is a good one. There are other players who might do as well, and offer better shooting.

The fourth quarter was basically the deep benches, but the Rockets deep bench could hit 3pt shots, and the Thunder couldn’t. The Rockets put up 53 three pointers tonight, which is far beyond their average of 31.6 last season. We’ll see if that holds up in any way.

I’m not sure there are any particularly surprising takeaways from individual play, but there were some changes in approach from the Rockets we might hope to see continue.

The first is, not setting up in the same spot every time, and very few screens being called up anywhere, and certainly not as a reliable certainty. Last year screens mainly served to drag another defender into the area of the ballhandler, congesting their movement. Right now the Rockets are staying spread out. They don’t move, but they do actually space the court, forcing defenses from the paint.

The second is, the Rockets are attacking on offense early in the clock, with very little surveying and pounding the ball. Certainly some of this is attributable to Fred VanVleet, but the set up is simply different as well, from the past two seasons. I’m cautiously optimistic. Attacking a defense like the Thunder early is the way to go. The Thunder want to swarm and slap on defense, and the longer a team holds the ball, the worse it gets. They’re good at it. What they aren’t, in general, is big and powerful, or even especially quick. Decisive attacks that force reactions, and might lead to passes off cuts, like Sengun to Amen, are a way to break them down. Sure, it’s preseason, but that’s a good recipe no matter when.

Third, we’re seeing an actual fast break attack. Despite the Rockets size and athleticism, they were one of the lower ranked fast break teams in the league last season.

Finally, are they going to shoot more threes? They might well have better personnel to do it than anytime since The Harden Centuries.

Anyhow, preseason is now over, and the Rockets start the real season at home, against Dallas, on Wednesday the 21st. See you there.