Grizzlies’ surprising offensive bursts kept Houston on edge. Rockets finally secured a crucial win after a tense, back-and-forth battle.
The Houston Rockets came into this game desperate for a win after back to back losses. Ugly and painful losses too.
Those disappointing performances forced the team to drop down to sixth in the conference, where they’ll have to play on the road in any playoff matchup.
To make matters worse, those recent losses brought the Rockets back down under .500 away from the Toyota Center in Houston. Not a comforting record for a team who will be on the road in the postseason. It’s essentially a coin flip.
That made last night's game against the lowly Memphis a strangely must win type of game, but I don’t think the Rockets came out with the same feeling.
Despite Kevin Durant getting more than halfway to a triple double very early on (6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists), the first quarter was still a bit concerning for Ime Udoka and his team.
This is a sentiment Ryan Hollins shared on the broadcast, as the Grizzlies were seemingly scoring at will.
The initial 12 minutes ended with Memphis’ G.G. Jackson draining a halfcourt buzzer beater to bring his team within two. 32-30.
The second quarter was much sloppier and uglier than the first, with neither team getting to double digit points scored until there were less than six minutes left.
Finally, Reed Sheppard nailed a long ball to put Houston up 44-38 with 5:26 left in the half. With Durant and Şengün on the bench, it was Reed’s time to run the offense.
A really solid stretch where he had that triple, an elbow jumper out of the pick and roll, then an assist to Jabari Smith Jr. rolling. Three straight buckets on three straight possessions.
The second half started with a score that was honestly still too close for comfort, up 56-49.
Much like the first quarter, the third quarter started with a lot of offense from Memphis. They went on an 11-2 run in just over one minute of play.
Houston got in the bonus with more than half of the third period still left, ultimately slowing down our arrive to the final 12 minutes.
We would make it to the 4th with the Rockets leading 87-82. Again, too close for comfort if you ask me.
We saw an extremely odd lineup to start, with Holiday, Thompson, Tate, Jabari, and Capela on the court. I’m not completely sure what the thought process was here, but they did survive and managed to draw a few more fouls.
This was just a weird game all around and ultimately pretty boring to me. The starters came back in and closed out the game properly, getting their biggest lead of 14 with 4:20 left.
A win is a win, regardless of how it looks, and the Rockets desperately needed this one. Now back to .500 on the road, they’ll head to New Orleans to try to get above .500 on Sunday.