LAKERS BEAT ROCKETS AGAIN

Rockets fall to Lakers despite big performances from Christian Wood, Jalen Green

Rockets fall to Lakers despite big performances from Christian Wood, Jalen Green
Lakers beat the Rockets, 119-117 on Tuesday night. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images.

"The fight, the grit, and the stick to it of this group is admirable," Coach Silas said. "Especially against this team."

The Houston Rockets played a tremendous game versus the Lakers, which was their best game of the season. Obviously, the Rockets looked complacent against the Lakers on Sunday night, but film played a huge part Monday. Silas mentioned that grasping the defensive concepts were pivotal for Tuesday night.

"We showed film today that was very positive. We had helped the helper situations, we had cover situations on the weak side where the closest man just has to take it, and we [did]," Silas said. "They're grasping it there, you know it's game. We played six games, so I always wanted to be faster than [what] it's probably going to be. But, yeah, they're getting it."

The Rockets really struggled with getting back in transition because of the turnovers created by the Lakers Sunday night. Those turnovers that created points bothered Silas. He really wanted to correct the issue before facing the Lakers again. They allowed 25 turnovers, which resulted in 20 points in fastbreak transition. The Lakers (103.2) are beneath the Rockets (103.9) in pace, so it becomes extremely dangerous to allow LeBron James and Russell Westbrook to push the tempo in fastbreaks.

"LeBron James has the ball in his hands, he's going to dictate the pace and when Russell Westbrook is upon us and he's going to dictate the pace, and we're still finding our way when it comes to how we dictate pace. The concepts that we've been kind of harping on and getting better at, slowly but surely," Silas said.

When it comes to turnovers, the Rockets average 20.1 turnovers per contest, which isn't healthy for a particular flow throughout the game. It's unhealthy when you're facing a team who is 5th in offensive transition, while the Rockets are 22nd defensive transition and allow 1.24 points per possession (per NBA stats). Although Silas doesn't feel completely comfortable about the defensive transition, the Rockets did look better in defensive transition Tuesday night. Players were communicating and getting back faster on defense, but still managed to have 24 turnovers and 23 points on fastbreaks.

"The transition part is something we talked about a lot coming into this game," Silas said. "We gave 23 fastbreak points, so it wasn't that great. They put a lot of pressure on your defense with Russ and LeBron. They're kind of hard to stop because they're fast and so physical. Our getting back and making sure we're declaring the basketball and fanning out from there are the things we preach."

The Rockets looked good offensively, Jalen Green, Christian Wood, and Jae' Sean Tate provided much-needed scoring.

Green is slowly finding his stride with the Rockets as he recorded 24 points on 60 percent shooting with five made threes. It's intriguing to watch Green have big games against veteran players. His shot making was incredible, as he made difficult step-back threes and slithered through traffic for tough layups.

Another thing I adore is his reads on pick-and-roll, as made good reads when blitzed by the Lakers. He made difficult passes and clutch shots, which helped the Rockets stay in the game. Green is having an uneven season but could still explode on a random night.

The Lakers did a good job on defending Green with double teams, physical play, denial of the ball, and playing over the screens to deny the dribble handoff. They made it hard for Green in the 3rd quarter, but it's another learning curve for Green to recover from. Although the Lakers made it harder on Green, he stayed aggressive. Green had a 75.6 true shooting percentage versus the Lakers, which capped off a tremendous 76.7 effective field goal percentage.

Christian Wood had a big game

Christian Wood recorded his fourth double-double on the season. He applied constant pressure in transition and in halfcourt sets. Wood relied on dribble handoffs and pick-and-roll to free himself up, so he could make it easier on Green and Kevin Porter Jr. He even a made a few three-point shots, but never settled, as he attacked the basket in transition. It was fun watching Wood embrace the challenge of facing Anthony Davis, as he consistently attacked him in the paint from the perimeter.

Wood finished his night with 26 points on 57 percent shooting and 16 rebounds. He even had a 61.3 shooting percentage.

A season-high for Jae-Sean Tate

Jae-Sean Tate had a season-high 20 points versus the Lakers. He focused on the details, as it came to cutting to the basket and finishing near the rim. Although Tate isn't the best three-point shooter, he made 50 percent of his perimeter shots. Tate becomes more effective without the ball because of his screening and cutting. He is used in pick-and-rolls, so he can make easy slips toward the basket. Just because he is 6'4 doesn't mean he can't hang around the rim for easy buckets. If Tate makes strong drives toward the basket and makes his shots, it could be a long night for the defending team.

"It's his mentality. His versatility is great. His strength and size are great for our group. He wanted to guard those guys and wants to be in those situations. He wants to be the stopper down the stretch, so he was really really good tonight. His scoring and crashing the glass, then his defense. That's good for a second year player," Silas said.

Tate even had great defensive stops too on James. In the 4th quarter with 7:48 left, James started to take over, but Tate accepted the challenge so he could make it possible for Green's clutch shots toward the end of the game. Tate and Silas both feel like his defense can take him far. Silas was seen signaling no help, as Tate took on James in an isolation post-up position.

"I feel like I can be an elite defender and coach trusts me to guard the best players on the opposing team," Tate said.

Despite the Rockets' best efforts, they came up short losing to the Lakers, 119-117 on Tuesday night.

Next up: The Rockets head to Phoenix to face the Suns on Thursday night.

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The Texans have a lot of work to do this offseason. Composite Getty Image.

So how successful was the recently concluded Houston Texans’ season? Their record was the same 10-7 mark posted a year ago, they won a home playoff game as a year ago, and then were eliminated in the Divisional round as a year ago. Coming off three seasons in which the Texans won a total of 11 games, the 2023 campaign went down as an unquestionably tremendous success. Holding steady in 2024? Let’s go with middling success. While more than a few subscribe to the notion that if you’re not going forward you’re going backward, that’s too cut and dried to categorize the 2024 Texans.

Winning a horrible AFC South simply is not an achievement to brag on. That said, the Texans were leaps and bounds better than the horrible. It’s not very long ago that they were the horrible. The South is the only AFC division the Texans would have come close to winning, but while watered down with regard to impressiveness, it’s not as if winning it is meaningless. Eight times now in their 23 seasons of existence the Texans have won the division. Taking nothing else into consideration, that is quite good. With divisions comprised of four teams, if everything was equal over a lengthy period of time (quality of management, coaching, luck, and whatever else) pure math says each team should win its division once every four years. The Texans eight titles in 23 seasons is better than once every three years. Since the current divisional format was adopted when the Texans began playing in 2002, the Colts have won the South nine times, the Titans four times, the Jaguars just twice. The Texans have won their division crowns in pairs: 2011/2012, 2015/2016, 2018/2019, 2023/2024. They will be clear favorites to make it back-to-back-to-back division championships for the first time.

And now to the flip side of the coin. The Texans are an utter failure at achieving anything beyond winning a Wild Card round game on their home field. Eight playoff appearances, a 6-2 record all at home vs. a Wild Card, 0-6 in the Division round, hence zero spots in the AFC Championship game. The Texans have not come close to winning in any of those six defeats. Their best go of it was their first ever postseason, the 2011 season. The Texans were at Baltimore, and twice in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter took possession trailing 20-13. The first of those possessions featured consecutive T.J. Yates (!) completions to Andre Johnson that got them near midfield. Yates’s next throw was also intended for Johnson. It was a deep ball intercepted by Ed Reed (that would not be the last time Ed Reed was involved in a poor outcome for the Texans but that’s a wholly different topic). The Texans then forced a Ravens’ three and out and took over after the punt at their own 48-yard-line with 45 seconds left. Yates threw four straight incompletions and that was that. Thirteen years later the Texans have come no closer to the NFL’s semifinals. Using the same simple math that dictates a team should win its division every four years, with sixteen teams competing for two spots in the Conference Championship game, over the long haul a franchise should average an appearance once every eight years. The Texans are still sitting on zero. The Cleveland Browns (2.0 edition) are the only other AFC franchise to never get within one victory of the Super Bowl.

Other than the seven point loss to the Ravens, Saturday’s defeat in Kansas City is the only other non-double digit Texans’ playoff loss, and that was a nine point game only because the Chiefs took a safety in the final seconds. Their other six playoff losses have come by an average of 19.83 points. That drives home the fact that the Texans have yet to ever be true Super Bowl contenders.

Waiting for Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson to decline isn’t much of a plan. Will C.J. Stroud evolve into a quarterback worthy of belonging in at least the same paragraph as those three, if not the same sentence? Will Nick Caserio atone for his arrogant and erroneous declaration that it was a “lazy narrative” to point to the Texans’ offensive line play as, well, offensive? Those are two of the bigger questions to which the answers will shape the Texans’ ceiling for 2025 and beyond. The nucleus of a potentially elite defense is there with Will Anderson, Danielle Hunter (for one more season at least), Derek Stingley, Kamari Lassiter, and Calen Bullock. It’s not supremely difficult to get pretty good in the NFL. Greatness is a much higher hurdle to clear. The Texans are pretty good. Pretty good may be good enough to win another cute little division championship banner. Can they deliver great?

Still three weeks to go until the doors open at spring training, but the Astros are always in season for our discussion. New Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts drop each Monday, with intense negotiations in progress to add a Thursday episode also. Click here to watch!

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