ROCKETS LOSE TO THUNDER
Thunder rumbles again: Rockets unable to overcome OKC in rematch
Feb 28, 2024, 9:24 am
ROCKETS LOSE TO THUNDER
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 112-95 on Tuesday night for their sixth straight win.
Jalen Williams had 24 points and Chet Holmgren added 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who are tied with Minnesota for the best record in the Western Conference.
The Thunder outrebounded the Rockets 55-46.
“I think we brought physicality from the jump tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We didn’t have our best offensive game, but we brought the fight to them in the beginning. We were able to kind of get a lead and maintain the lead for most of the night because of it.”
Alperen Sengun had 23 points and 11 rebounds and Jabari Smith Jr. added 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who also lost to the Thunder on Sunday. Oklahoma City packed the paint against the Rockets in the rematch and held them to 38.9% shooting from the field.
“They take away the pocket, obviously, and collapse and crowd, and you get a bunch of wide-open looks," Houston coach Ime Udoka said. "You don’t make that stuff and it stresses everything else out and causes us to force it a little bit too much individually. So we love the looks we got — a lot of wide-open ones — and didn’t shoot it well tonight at all. So, you've got to live with the shots, but, play better.”
Houston fell apart late in the first half. With the Thunder leading 54-48, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet was whistled for a foul on a drive by Holmgren. Udoka challenged the call and was unsuccessful, then Smith and Udoka were called for technical fouls — Smith for questioning the integrity of the officials and Udoka for profanity directed toward the officials.
So instead of Houston trailing by six and getting the ball with a successful challenge, Oklahoma City made four free throws to extend its lead to 10. The Thunder led 60-50 at the break after closing the half on a 12-2 run.
Early in the third quarter, Holmgren caught a lob from Williams, dunked it two-handed behind his head and was fouled. Holmgren made the free throw to put the Thunder up 65-56.
Lu Dort missed his first seven shots before hitting a 3-pointer that put Oklahoma City up 71-61 and prompted Udoka to call a timeout. The Thunder led 84-74 at the end of the third as Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine points in a three-minute span late in the quarter.
“Just take what the defense gives me and trust my work," he said. "There’s moments, and you can feel it when you’ve got it going and you should be aggressive. And there’s also moments when you need your teammates and you've got to kind of play the game. And it’s something that I notice and I try to work on every game, every day. And I’ve definitely gotten better.”
A driving dunk by Williams after a bounce pass from Josh Giddey put the Thunder ahead 96-79. A lob from Holmgren to new Thunder player Gordon Hayward made it 98-81, and Oklahoma City remained in control from there.
“Bottom line is play better,” Udoka said. "They had three or four guys play better than ours.”
UP NEXT
Rockets: Visit the Phoenix Suns on Thursday.
Thunder: Visit the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday.
While holding one’s breath that for a change the Astros aren’t publicly grossly underestimating an injury’s severity with Jose Altuve having missed the last game and a half with “right side discomfort…”
The Astros averting a sweep vs. Oakland Thursday was in no way a must-win, but getting the win allowed a mini sigh of relief. The Astros are NOT in the process of choking. Could they collapse? Sure that’s possible. Also possible is that they’ve just been in one more ebb phase in a season of ebb and flow. They certainly have left the door ajar for the Seattle Mariners to swipe the American League West, but with the M's simply not looking good enough to walk through that door the Astros remain in commanding position. The Astros made a spectacular charge from 10 games behind to grab the division lead. But there was a lot of runway left when the Astros awoke June 19th 10 games in arrears. September 3 the Astros arose with a comfy six game lead over the M’s. With Seattle blowing a 4-1 eighth inning lead in a 5-4 loss to the Texas Rangers Thursday night, heading into Friday night the Astros' advantage is back up to four and a half games despite the Astros having lost six of their last nine games and having gone just 10-12 over their last 22 games. Not a good stretch but nothing freefalling about it.
While the Mariners have the remainder of their four-game series vs. the dead in the water Rangers this weekend, the Astros play three at the lousy Los Angeles Angels. The Astros should take advantage of the Halos, with whom they also have a four-game series at Minute Maid Park next weekend. Since the All-Star break, only the White Sox have a worse record than the Angels 19-31 mark (the White Sox are 6-43 post-break!). Two of the three starting pitchers the Angels will throw this weekend will be making their third big league starts. To begin next week the Astros are in San Diego for a three-game-set against a Padres club which is flat better than the Astros right now. That does not mean the Astros can’t take that series. The Mariners meanwhile will be still at home, for three vs. the Yankees.
There are some brutal Astros’ statistics that largely explain why this is merely a pretty good team and not more. As I have noted before, it is a fallacy that the best teams are usually superior in close games. But the Astros have been pathetic in close games. There used to be a joke made about Sammy Sosa that he could blow you out, but he couldn’t beat you. Meaning being that when the score was 6-1, 8-3 or the like Sammy would pad his stats with home runs and runs batted in galore. But in a tight game, don’t count on Sammy to come through very often. In one-run games the Astros are 15-26, in two-run games they are 10-14. In games that were tied after seven innings they are 3-12. In extra innings they are 5-10. The good news is, all those realities mean nothing when the postseason starts. So long as you’re in the postseason. In games decided by three or more runs the Astros have pummeled the opposition to the tune of 53 wins and 28 losses.
General Manager Dana Brown isn’t an Executive of the Year candidate, but overall he’s been fine this season. Without the Yusei Kikuchi trade deadline acquisition the Astros would likely barely lead the AL West. Brown’s biggest offseason get, Victor Caratini, has done very solid work in his part-time role. Though he has tapered off notably the last month and change, relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a fabulous signing. Scrap heap pickups Ben Gamel, Jason Heyward, and Kaleb Ort have all made contributions. However…
Dana. Dana! You made yourself look very silly with comments this week somewhat scoffing at people being concerned with or dismissive of Justin Verlander’s ability to be a meaningful playoff contributor. Brown re-sang a ridiculous past tune, the “check the back of his baseball card” baloney. Dana, did you mean like the back of Jose Abreu’s baseball card? Perhaps Brown has never seen those brokerage ads in which at the end in fine print and/or in rapidly spoken words “past performance is no guarantee of future results” always must be included. Past (overall career) performance as indicative of future results for a 41-year-old pitcher who has frequently looked terrible and has twice missed chunks of this season to two different injuries is absurd. That Verlander could find it in time is plausible. That of course he’ll find it? Absolutely not. His next two starts are slotted to be against the feeble Angels, so even if the results are better, it won’t mean “JV IS BACK!”
Presuming they hold on to win the division, the Astros’ recent sub-middling play means they have only very faint hope of avoiding having to play the best-of-three Wild Card Series. Barring a dramatic turn over the regular season’s final fortnight, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown are the obvious choices to start games one and two. If there is a game three, it is one game do or die. Only a fool would think Verlander the right man for that assignment. No one should expect Brown to say “Yeah, JV is likely finished as a frontline starter.” But going to the “back of the baseball card” line was laughable. Father Time gets us all eventually. Verlander has an uphill climb extricating himself from Father Time’s grasp.
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.