The Houston Rockets were hoping to stay undefeated and win their first NBA Cup game, but the Dallas Mavericks had other plans as the Mavericks came out on top with a 116-111 win over the Rockets, which gave Houston their first loss and enabled Dallas to win their first game of NBA Cup play as well as tie the season series against the Rockets.

With that said, let's look at the top takeaways from this game against Dallas for Houston to see what could be improved and what could be a positive sign.

To start off, one of the biggest takeaways from this game was the fact the Rockets did not get enough scoring in the 4th quarter.

In this game, Houston scored 27 points in the final quarter, while Dallas tallied 40 points, which enabled the Mavericks to get back in this game and ultimately win it. Additionally, as previously mentioned on Roundtable, Kevin Durant was out for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, and the Rockets were not able to maintain the lead despite having four starters on the floor.

With that in mind, this is something that the Rockets cannot allow to happen moving forward as Durant is 38-years old and should not be in a position where he has to play 35 or more minutes per game.

So, as the Rockets progress, it will be worth watching how Houston can respond to the loss, but also if this fourth-quarter performance does become a major theme or if it was simply a bad game. 

The next takeaway to look at is the fact that forward Tari Eason and center Clint Capela were both able to shine in the front court.

While the Rockets were not able to win this game, Eason and Capela were solid on the interior which is a great sign for Houston assuming both players can play like this on a somewhat consistent basis.

During Friday night's loss, Eason came off the bench and tallied 11 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, and one steal, while Capela totaled five points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two steals, and two blocks while being in the starting lineup as a result of Alperen Sengun being out. When looking at the performance of Eason and Capela on the statistics side, it was definitely great to see, as the duo combined for 24 rebounds and were solid on the inside.

With that said, if Eason and Capela can continue this performance moving forward, that could be huge for this team to be able to have multiple players they can rely on over the course of the season on the interior.

The final takeaway from this game is the fact that the Rockets need Sengun and young guard Reed Sheppard who were both out in this game as a result of low back soreness.

As mentioned earlier, Capela, did play well, but he does not bring the scoring that Sengun does and also without Sheppard coming off the bench, the Rockets did not have as much shooting as they normally do from the reserves and while Houston did have 25 bench points, Sheppard definitely could have made a difference.

One impact of Sengun and Sheppard not playing was the fact that Durant ended up forcing the issue more than normal to start the year as while he did have 28 points, he went 9 for 20 from the field, 1 for 6 from three, and 9 for 13 from the free-throw line. Without two scorers on the year for Houston who average double digit points, Durant felt the need to try to shoulder that responsibility.

So, as the Rockets move on from this game, it will be interesting to see when Sengun and Sheppard do return as well as who could step up when both players are out, because it is clear that Sengun and Sheppard are critical pieces to this team, especially on the offensive end.

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