Rockets Suffer Shocking Collapse, Fall to Nets, 99-97, in Final Seconds
Kamikaze. Seismic Shift. Darkness Falls.
No one saw this coming. Despite leading by five points with ten seconds in the game, the Rockets collapsed in the final seconds, losing to the Nets, 99-97, on Saturday night. Houston seemed like they had this game won until an errant inbounds pass from Amen Thompson bounced out to Brooklyn’s D’Angelo Russell, who hit a go-ahead three-pointer with a few seconds left to seal the win for the Nets. Keon Johnson led Brooklyn’s scoring attack with 22 points in a winning effort.
The Rockets have suffered some heartbreaking losses this season, but none were on the level of this defeat. Houston utterly shot themselves in the foot, and gifted this game to Brooklyn. And they spoiled a very solid bounce back performance from Aleperen Sengun, who returned from a two-game injury absence to register 24 points and 20 rebounds in the loss. Reed Sheppard also had the best game of his young career. The rookie scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in a career-high 28 minutes of action. Sheppard needs more games like this if he wants any chance of seeing playing time when the Rockets are fully healthy. Houston’s rookie has been a disappointment this season, whether people want to admit it or not. It was nice to see Sheppard finally have something slightly resembling a good performance on the basketball court.
With the defeat, the Rockets are now sliding in the wrong direction, riding a season-high four game losing streak. And with this loss, it feels as if a seismic shift has happens. That the good times for Houston may be over. Hopefully I’m wrong, but the road trip only gets tougher. The Rockets were supposed to win at least one, if not both of these recent games with Brooklyn, yet both ended with disappointing results.
This losing streak the Rockets are currently mired in has pushed them down to third place out West, and only a mere one game in the loss column ahead the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers. After their tremendous play on the previous road trip, no one expected Houston to struggle like they have recently, losing all three of their final matches to the Big Apple area squads. For the first time all year, it feels like darkness has truly fallen on the Rockets season.
Up next on this four game road trip, Houston will try and snap their skid as they visit Minnesota to battle the Timberwolves. The Wolves have been heating up lately, and have climbed up to the seventh spot in the Western Conference. If the Rockets want to avoid falling farther down the West standings, they’ll need a bounce-back performance against the Wolves on Thursday night.