ROCKETS FALL TO BLAZERS
Important takeaways from Rockets' 104-92 loss to Trail Blazers
Nov 13, 2021, 3:18 pm
Another tough loss for Houston. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
The Houston Rockets suffered their 10th loss on the season falling to the Trail Blazers 104-92 on Friday night. Nassir Little and Damian Lillard dominated throughout the game. Missed free throw attempts have destroyed the chances of winning games this season. Friday night, the Rockets shot 63 percent from the free throw line, which puts them dead last in the NBA. As they continue to miss free throws, it makes it harder for them to compete against other competitive teams.
Another thing that damaged the Rockets was turnovers in half court play. Jalen Green had 6 of 13 of turnovers versus the Portland Trail Blazers. Green got out muscled at times or went into the Trail Blazers defensive coverage, which resulted in fastbreak points. He is averaging 3.1 turnovers per contest and opponents are averaging 17.2 points per game on the season from Green's turnovers, as that needs to slow down. It was another up-and-down night for Green, when it came to scoring the basketball. Green is still trying to find that elite stride as a shooter in the NBA. He only shot the ball at 33 percent because of his nine attempts.
It's all about Green finding his rhythm instead of forcing passes and shots. Making the simple play is the best way for Green to impact the game. He missed his rim runner (Christian Wood) on a pick-and-roll opportunity, as a passing lane was open. Green will eventually find his shooting spots on the court and be able to read coverages better. These shooting slumps will not last for Green, as he is shooting 28.9 percent beyond the perimeter and 35.8 percent from the field. Green is a human microwave just waiting to explode because he has shot diversity and amazing first step. Damian Lillard was impressed with Green throughout the season.
"Obliviously, I think he [Green] is very super talented," Lillard said. "Don't listen to what people tell you. You're this pick, you go to be the man, and take over. Just show up, work hard. Stay humble. Be coachable. Listen to your teammates. Your talent is going to allow you to be the starter you're supposed to be. Just make sure that foundation is right when...you come into the league."
Kevin Porter Jr. had a good, elevated night, as he held the Rockets in a close margin throughout the game. The Rockets go as far as Porter takes him, as he can control the pace of his scoring and facilitation. Inside the first quarter, he found a little scoring and put his teammates in position to score. He had a 119 offensive rating in the first quarter, with a 24 net rating. As the game continued in the second quarter, Porter played 7:40 minutes, but sizzled down with in the quarter, as he only shot 33 percent with no assists.
The Rockets' offense struggled in the second quarter, as the team only scored 14 points. Porter makes the Rockets' offense flow because of his skill set with the basketball. Porter had one turnover and shot the ball 50 percent from the field. The three-point shot does need work, as he loves taking step-back and pull-up threes throughout the game. When Porter does a better job at controlling the pace with his passing and scoring, the Rockets will be successful, as they have Green and Wood as their other two weapons.
Coach Chauncey Billups and Lillard believe Porter can be a star within in the NBA as he learns the point guard position.
“First of all, You are a smart man because those are the only two teams I played good for (🤣). That dude is gifted (KPJ). He can dribble, he can pass, he make shots, he is athletic. It takes time" #Rockets pic.twitter.com/hHAACzMfA8
— Zach Allen (@RenzoTheDon) November 13, 2021
"He's kind of been judged and misunderstood, but the talent level is through the roof," Lillard said. "He can do everything, and personally, he's one of my favorite young players in the league."
Up next: The Rockets face the Phoenix Suns on Sunday at 6pm.
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The NCAA selection committee will have some juggling to do before the bracket comes out Sunday to keep March Madness from looking like an extension of the Southeastern Conference's regular season.
With the country's deepest league in line to place between 12 and 14 teams in the tournament, some long-held guidelines drawn to help set the matchups will have to give way, bringing the possibility that conference rivals could face each other as early as the second round or the Sweet 16.
“We will move it to try to ensure they don't play each other too frequently,” the chair of the selection committee, North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, said Wednesday in a call to preview the selection. “But it is a reality of where we are today.”
The reality is shaped thanks in part to a flurry of realignment that has left college sports with four megaconferences. Three of those will gobble up nearly half of the 68 spots in the tournament. The record for a conference came in 2011 when the Big East placed 11 teams in the bracket.
Some projections have the SEC earning up to 14 spots, the Big Ten getting as many as 10 and the Big 12 earning up to eight. Of those 32 projected spots, seven could go to teams that were in different conferences as recently as 2023 — programs such as Oklahoma, Oregon and BYU.
There will be some big-picture repercussions from all this realignment. In a notable development earlier this week, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark got on board with an idea to expand the tournament to 76 teams in a move that would favor Power Four conferences.
More urgently, though, having so many teams from so few conferences will force the 12 members of the selection committee, who are holed up in a conference room in Indiana this week, to make some nontraditional decisions.
The NCAA bracketing principles frown on teams that have played three times in a season from meeting before the Elite Eight. Likewise, they urge the committee to avoid potential pairings between teams that have played twice coming before the Sweet 16. But, in a tweak that was put in for this season, the principles note that those rules “can be relaxed if a league has nine or more teams in the tournament.”
Cunningham said the committee's biggest priority will be getting the seedings right, an exercise that could make it more difficult to avoid these early matchups.
“We really try to keep everybody on the same seed line" they've earned, he said. “We don't want to move them to a different seed line because that really does impact the tournament. But it'll be a little bit trickier this year."
The SEC's dominance is showing up not only in the sheer volume of teams but also where they land. Auburn is a lock for a No. 1 seed, with Florida considered a slight favorite to edge out Tennessee and Alabama for another.
Among the biggest questions is whether the top overall seed in the tournament will go to Auburn or Duke, which this week supplanted the Tigers at No. 1 in the AP Top 25. The irony there is that Duke is one of only three teams from the ACC projected to make the field of 68, which would mark the hoops powerhouse's lowest total in 25 years.