TWOLVES DEFEAT ROCKETS
Houston Rockets lose ground in West after second straight loss
Apr 3, 2024, 9:04 am
Houston is now three games back of Golden State. Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images.
Naz Reid strengthened his case for the Sixth Man of the Year Award with 25 points and six rebounds, Anthony Edwards scored 19 points and the Timberwolves kept up their push for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with a 113-106 victory over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night.
The Timberwolves, who have clinched a playoff berth, are tied for second with Oklahoma City at 52-23, a half-game behind Denver, with seven games remaining in the regular season.
“It's a headache, man,” Wolves point guard Mike Conley Jr. said. “You look up and one day, you're first, next day, you're third, second, you never know. At this point, we're just trying to keep our head down, worry about the game that's in front of us and trying to take care of our business.”
Houston had a seven-game road win streak snapped and has dropped two in a row following 11 straight victories that brought it back into the playoff picture. The Rockets (38-37) are now three games out of the Western Conference's final play-in position.
Making his sixth straight start in place of injured Karl-Anthony Towns, Reid breathed life into an initially quiet Target Center crowd on Tuesday. The 6-foot-9 center is averaging 13.1 points and 5.1 rebounds and shooting 40.7% from 3-point range this season, all career highs.
“I was just playing my game, trying to get my rhythm ... from all facets of the floor,” Reid said. “We all have the same mindset, and that's to do whatever we need to win. Whether we're up 10 or down 10, just make it happen.”
His 3 from the right wing with 2:45 left helped stave off a late Rockets rally. Fred VanVleet's 3 on the previous possession had cut the Wolves' lead to one.
Reid recently said it's a personal goal to win the John Havlicek Sixth Man of the Year Trophy. With Kings reserve Malik Monk out for at least four weeks with a knee injury, Reid is on the short list of candidates to usurp him for the award.
Reid entered Tuesday first in points and 3s made and third in rebounds, blocks and steals among reserve centers.
Jalen Green led the Rockets with 26 points, five rebounds and six assists. VanVleet finished with 22 points.
“It's tough to do that in the NBA, win that many games in a row,” Houston coach Ime Udoka, the Western Conference coach of the month for March, said before the game regarding his team's 11-game win streak. “Players understand they have to increase their role, be more efficient. We've had to make some quick adjustments.”
The Rockets led by as much as 11 before the Wolves closed the first half on a 21-4 run. Reid led the way with 17 first-half points, Conley converted a four-point play on a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and Jordan McLaughlin made a pair of 3s to give Minnesota a 54-45 halftime lead.
The Wolves never trailed again.
Before Tuesday’s game, Wolves coach Chris Finch said he’d like to see his team come out with more of an edge at home. He didn't get his wish. Houston led 23-16 after a quarter and went ahead by 10 on Green's 3 to open the second.
“I think (our mindset is) just to keep going, to keep fighting," Reid said. “It's a 48-minute game; a lot of things can happen.”
UP NEXT
Rockets: Host Golden State on Thursday.
Timberwolves: Host Toronto on Wednesday.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
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 YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.