It’s a hit or miss league, and tonight, the Houston Rockets had their worst three-point shooting night of the season, while the Dallas Mavericks had a red and hot night of rocket killer Tim Hardaway and a performance by Luka Doncic to take down the Rockets 113-100.
Hardaway finished with 30 points and 7 rebounds in 11-14 field shots and 8-10 in the background, while Luka made his best game of the season so far, going for 33 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists, and Houston just couldn’t keep up. .
Although Dallas was on the second night in a row, it was actually the Rockets who were slow and listless to start the game, and they struggled to find their pace against a plethora of dirty calls, including two initial techniques in DeMarcus Cousins, and one that was highly questionable that caused Cousins to be expelled to set the tone for the night.
The Rockets dropped 33-21 after a quarter and 61-49 at halftime, but showed some courage to fight in the third quarter to reach 72-70 at one point, and then tied the game at 85 with about 10 minutes to go in the fourth, but with James Harden and John Wall having nights off to throw the ball, Houston just couldn’t handle the Mavs in the end.
The Rockets hit just 39 percent overall as a team and were only 11-40 past the arc tonight, and you won’t be defeating many teams by shooting that way. Dallas made a very good save at times, but the Rockets also missed many shots that they normally give, and that told the story of the game.
Christian Wood led all of Houston’s top scorers with 23 points, 7 rebounds, a steal and a 8-15 block from the field, but he was 0-5 from the bottom. Harden finished with 21 points, 10 assists and 2 steals, but he was only 5-17 on the field and 3-11 on three. He was constantly picked up and doubled over by the Mavs, and the Rockets just couldn’t get Dallas to pay, as Harden’s defense mate John Wall ended his worst game yet as a Rocket, with just 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, 4-10 from the field and 1-3 from the bottom.
In addition, the Rockets scored 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists from Eric Gordon, but no other Houston player ended up with double digits. In fact, Cousins seemed to be on top of a great night dominating Dallas reserves, with 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks in just 3 minutes of action before being sent off. It was a crucial moment in the game.
You have these kinds of shooting nights in the NBA, and Houston’s defense just isn’t strong enough yet at this point to make up for the nights when they have these lapses of fire, although D shows glimpses in moments of what we might expect, forcing 15 total Mover turnovers and really looking like they put it all together in the third before bottoming out in the fourth quarter.
Houston drops to 2-3 in the season and 2-1 with the flesh of his squad playing. They return to action on Wednesday night at the Indiana Pacers.