Takeaways from the Rockets' 136-106 win over the Thunder on Monday night in Oklahoma City:
DeMarcus Cousins was not sure why his teammates kept calling for him to put up 3s but he had no reason to argue.
There had been a time, spanning most of his career, that his night would have been long over when his coach cleared the bench to finish a rout. But Cousins had not played much. He picked up three rapid fouls and played only 4 ½ first-half minutes. So, with the franchise record for 3-pointers in a game in sight, and the NBA record close behind, Cousins was told to fire away. He obliged.
“Honestly, I had no clue,” Cousins said. “Guys started screaming to shoot. I had no clue what was going on. I just fired up two long balls. But I became aware toward the end.”
Cousins hit a pair of 3s to bring the Rockets close. Ben McLemore knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the franchise record. Finally, Cousins hit one more, breaking the franchise record with the Rockets’ 28th 3-pointer of the night.
He went for the NBA record, too, missing a pair. Danuel House Jr. missed the final attempt before the Rockets dribbled out their last possession. No one could mind falling short of the mark the Bucks set this season. There have been more important goals in mind in the climb to 10-9, the first time the Rockets have been on the good side of .500 this season.
“The guys at the end of the bench were cheering them on to shoot 3s,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “I was more concerned with the win."
It’s actually not a bad thing when the guys at the end of the bench are starters and finish games cheering for the guys that are normally at the end of the bench.
More important, the abundance of 3s were the result of the other improvements made that lead to so many good shots. Ranked 22nd in defense before the James Harden trade, they have been first since. Ranked 26th in passes per game before the trade, they have had the second-most per game since.
Still, they wanted their place in the record book.
“Oh, no question,” guard Eric Gordon said. “We’ll get there. Of course, I wanted the record. That’s no question.”
1. The Rockets over three days spoke of little as often as they cited the need to get off to fast starts. They talked about defense more often because they always do. They could look at a sunset and say it is so beautiful it reminds them of an aggressive on-the-ball defense. But after that, they talked about their play in the first quarter and not relying on comebacks.
They did just what they planned as if it was on a list of Saturday errands.
“The start of the game is something we’ve been focusing on,” Silas said. “Tonight, it was our defense. I mean, we did have 48 points, but I chose to focus on the 24 that we gave up. We were switching. We were active. We made it hard on them. So then, we were able to run out. And when we run and we get the ball up the floor quickly, we’re pretty good.”
OK, but no team ever has hit more 3-pointers in an opening quarter than the 11 the Rockets knocked down to open the rout on Monday. Hot shooting had something to do with it. It did take a few minutes to get going. The Rockets made just 1 of their first 5 shots to start the game then took off as if they remembered they had been told to start fast.
“Early on in this winning streak we were having bad starts,” Gordon said. “Now, we’ve kind of learned from that. We got to show dominance through the game.”
It really is not that easy. But in many ways, the Rockets have seemed to respond to whatever Silas has treated as the priority, which might be the most important part of leading 48-24 in the first quarter after spending days talking about the importance of the first quarter.
“I mean, we have a coachable group,” Silas said. “We have a mature group. We have guys who really want what’s best not just for them but everybody in the group. It’s good to know when we focus on something, whether it’s playing better defense or rebounding when Steven Adams is on the floor (Saturday, when he had two rebounds against the Rockets) or getting off to a better start like we did tonight, we do it.
“That’s a testament to the guys. It’s not necessarily me. It’s the individuals that we have in that locker room who just want to win and do what it takes for us to be successful. They’re starting to understand who we are as a group and what the recipe is for us to play well.”
2. The Rockets were as balanced as ever, but this time, added a different sort of balance to their sharing-the-wealth style.
As always, they had plenty of effective scorers. In their six-game winning streak, they have had just one player top 27 points and he did it just one time, Gordon’s 33 points in Dallas when Victor Oladipo was out and John Wall was in his first game back after missing five with a sore knee. On Monday, they had just one player top 20; Gordon, who scored 25 in 22 minutes.
But this time, balance also meant that they got 68 points from their starters and 68 from their bench.
That will happen about as much as the Rockets will hit 28 3-pointers in a game. But the Rockets bench has become a reliable weapon with depth that will be extraordinarily valuable amid the challenges of the 2020-21 season.
Monday’s game was not even the best the Rockets bench can do. McLemore, back in the rotation after three games limited to mop-up duty in blowouts, made just 1 of 5 3s. David Nwaba, who has had the best plus/minus on the team this season, is out with a sprained ankle.
But Gordon has taken to his sixth man role so well, he is scoring while basically serving as the second unit point guard with Wall and Oladipo often sitting at the same time.
House has looked stronger each game he has moved further from his three-week absence with back issues followed by a period in self-isolation.
Cousins, who struggled in the first two games back to his role as Christian Wood’s backup after Wood came back from his ankle injury and had a poor first half on Monday, had 17 points in 16 second-half minutes, including the 3-pointer that broke the franchise record for 3s in a game.
“I’m trying to get as many reps and as much playing time as possible,” Cousins said of finishing up a rout. “Those minutes are valuable to me.”
In that regard, if they help get Cousins going the way he was as a starter, they can be valuable to the Rockets. That could complete what would then be a very strong bench, with outstanding defenders Gordon, Nwaba and Sterling Brown, the versatile game of House and the strength of Cousins.
That group, often with either P.J. Tucker or Jae’Sean Tate mixed in, has done that defensively. But the scoring should be there, too. The Rockets were 27th in scoring off the bench last season, 24th per minute. Even in a season with so many games played with a desperately short bench, the Rockets reserves rank third in scoring per minute.
“With the second unit, I want us to be the best in the league,” Gordon said. “We have to create a major impact on the floor. That’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
3. Wall knew he had recovered his speed months ago. Offseason workouts cannot show everything, but they could show that.
There is much more to his game than being just one of the fastest players in the league with the ball in his hands. The Rockets have needed more than occasional bursts of quickness. On Monday, when they made just two of their first six shots, they needed him to hit the two, both 3-pointers that kick-started the barrage that would come.
But he also had a night matched up with a teenager, the Thunder’s Theo Maledon.
There were times, young legs could not keep up.
“Yeah, a little bit,” Wall said when asked if he found that especially satisfying considering his long road back to being a blur. “But I got satisfaction since this summer when I worked out and played. Just having my quickness, getting by guys, and finishing at the rim, that just shows all the hard work I did and the way the doctor did my surgery was perfect.
“I know I’m older (30.) But I know how to take care of my body than I probably did when I was younger and I know how much that means. But yeah, going against young guys that’s talented and up and coming in this league and have a bright future and still do what I do at the age I’m at and the years I’ve been in the league means a lot.”
That part of his game remains valuable, not just to score, but to initiate offense with the Rockets often looking to drive and kick. The ball movement, however, also gets the ball back to him.
Wall predictably started slowly on 3s, even as he said that he had spent much of his time away from the game and eventual rehab working on his shot. But in his five games since returning from his sore knee, Wall has made 42.9 percent of his 3s, including Monday’s 4 of 5.
“For one, I finally can jump,” Wall said. “People don’t understand and I can’t wait to tell my story of the two bone spurs I played with, the one in my knee and the one in my heel. You see those and you’d be like, ‘There’s no way this guy played basketball the last couple years and he was an All-Star.’ So, it’s just all a testimony to all the hard work and dedication I put into my game, working with my trainer Alex Mclean, he did a great job of pushing me, working with me every day.
“I told him, ‘I know how to finish at the rim, I know how to get to the basket, but let’s work on shooting off the dribble, let’s work on catch-shoot, a lot of 3s.’ In time, it’s going to pay off. A lot of guys are still going under screens against me. They help a lot when I’m spotted up. I know how much work I put in. It’s going to be nice when I make a lot.”
That will be important and valuable. It is also still fun to blow by young legs.
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February 02, 2021 at 01:27PM
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3-pointers: Takeaways from Rockets' win over Thunder - Houston Chronicle
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