Early Hole Dooms Rockets in 125-110 Loss to Blazers
A New Trio. Home Woes. Late Lift-Off.
Oh how the wonders of a road trip can bring an NBA team together, especially a young group. And the Rockets are missing the road right now, as Houston struggled once again in their own building, falling to the Trail Blazers, 125-110, on Friday night. Similar to their previous loss to San Antonio, the Rockets were beaten by a balanced attack from the opposition. Six different players for Portland scored at least a dozen points. The trio of C.J. McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and Anfernee Simons combined for 78 points, as Houston had no answers for Portland’s three best healthy players. With Damian Lillard out for the season with an injury, Simons has basically stepped into Lillard’s role, and shown he’s a valuable commodity in this league. Simons is no superstar, but he led the Blazers with 27 points on Friday night. And while Portland is still struggling this season, Simons, McCollum, and Nurkic are by far the Blazers three best players behind Lillard, proving to be a formidable trio of sorts against weaker competition.
Christian Wood and Garrison Mathews scored 21 apiece to lead the Rockets. Jalen Green had a bounce back game with 17 points, and K.J. Martin had one of his best outings of the season, also adding 17 points for Houston. However, it wasn’t enough, as the squad dropped their third straight game. The Rockets got off to yet another slow start, a trend that’s been one of Houston’s worst habits all season. The Blazers held a 12-point edge after one quarter, with the Rockets failing to erase the deficit. It’s hard to play when you’re behind double-digits, even more difficult for one of the youngest teams in the NBA, in Houston. If the Rockets continue to get off to slow starts, they’re trimming their chances of winning, as the squad’s shown the ability to come back, but more often than not, these late lift-offs aren’t resulting in Houston victories.
The friendly confines of Toyota Center haven’t been so comfortable for Houston lately. The Rockets have now lost their last ten games in a row at home, a franchise record. Houston will look to bounce back, and get revenge against a more difficult opponent, as the Warriors come to town on Monday night. Steph Curry won the previous meeting with a buzzer-beating shot for Golden State. Hopefully the Rockets will have more energy defensively with a big-name opponent coming to town, as opposed to the first two games in this home-stand. Houston needs it if they want any chance of finally putting a home win together for the first time in nearly two months.