The Houston Rockets opened their season with a bad loss at home, losing by five points to the Charlotte Hornets after leading by as many as 18. For Houston fans, it’s a loss that stings. As with any one-game sample size, only so much can be taken away from it. Nonetheless, there were specific mistakes that Houston will want to avoid repeating in the future.
Why Rockets Opening Loss To Hornets Strings
Before dwelling too much on the Rockets’ apparent mistakes, it is worth giving proper credit to the Hornets team that beat them. LaMelo Ball was terrific in this game. The Rockets are a team that loves single coverage with help only coming in the paint. Ball read it expertly. He finished with 34 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists, shooting 50% from the field and recording only two turnovers. He had help from surprise Robin Tre Mann, who scored 24 off the bench, but this was Ball’s show. That is, at least in the second half.
Sengun in the Rockets-Hornets Clash
The first half was the Alperen Sengun show. Surprisingly, the Hornets started with single coverage on the freshly extended young star. Sengun obligingly demonstrated the folly of this approach with 19 points and 13 rebounds (5 offensive) in the first half. This, together with some volume scoring by co-star Jalen Green and solid team defense by the Rockets to keep the Hornets under 40% from the field, secured the Rockets an 11-point halftime lead.
In the second half, the Hornets inevitably adjusted to double Sengun. Maybe denying the Rockets coaching staff the halftime opportunity to compose a counter was an ingenious ploy. In reality, the staff had the whole last season to come up with a counter and largely failed. The opposing team doubled Sengun, and the Rockets stopped being able to score. Sengun finished with 25 points on 22 shots. The team went from 60 points in the first half to 45 in the second. The deja vu stings for fans as much as losing the lead.
The Team’s Shooting Woes
The counter-point to the lack of a counter would be that guys missed shots. Green made some tough ones but finished five for 15 from three. Fred VanVleet struggled badly until very late. Dillon Brooks went one for six from the field, and Jabari Smith Jr. went two for seven. Ime Udoka was praised last season for his system of meritocracy, always looking for and closing with the hot hand. Cam Whitmore played only eight minutes in this game. Veterans Jeff Green and Aaron Holiday did not appear at all. All five starters played over 30 minutes despite their struggles.
VanVleet leading the team with 37 minutes while going four for 18 from the floor looks especially questionable. Rookie Reed Sheppard looked shaky in his debut. This will undoubtedly occur in various future games as well. But the Rockets get nothing out of him looking shaky playing alongside VanVleet. Bringing Sheppard along slowly may pay dividends later in the season, but running VanVleet into the ground early would make that irrelevant for the team’s Play In hopes this year.
Regarding that, any loss for Houston will sting this year with such a contested field. It’s especially regrettable to lose at Toyota Center when one of the team’s saving graces last season was its record at home. Losing to a team with one of the worst records in the NBA last season doesn’t help either, though; to be fair to Charlotte, Ball played only 22 games for them in 2023-24.
The Crunch Time Adjustment Game
The Rockets did break out some adjustments down the stretch. In particular, they experimented with their small-ball line-up from Sengun’s absence last season. This was deployed to deprive the Hornets of Ball’s wizardry in the pick-and-roll. The Rockets switched everything to try to force the Hornets into isolation basketball. Unfortunately, without Sengun, the Hornets could sting the Rockets repeatedly for offensive rebounds.
Funnily enough, when Houston did bring Sengun back into the game, Charlotte went small instead. The unlikely dagger was a side-step three from the six-foot-five Grant Williams, playing center to stretch out the Houston defense. Frankly, Sengun did a good job forcing the extra move, and it’s a shot that the team will live with. Awkwardly, though, Sengun immediately recorded a critical and completely avoidable turnover. It was the coup de grâce to a forgettable second half for the usually graceful Turkish big man.
Houston must find ways to keep Sengun involved in the offense without leaving him stranded in the mud. Some of that is on Sengun himself. Perhaps mindful of his comrade’s shooting woes, he turned down multiple opportunities to pass early out of double teams. He can play better in those spots, and he knows as much. In his own words:
“I was just missing shots today (that) normally I’m not missing. I wasn’t my best today.”
The Last Word
The Rockets can hope they’ll shoot better from distance in their next game. What they can’t do is hope the opponent won’t double Sengun. In their first game, the team looked much the same as last season, hardly surprising given the contributions of their only additions. Steven Adams missed the game with a calf strain and Sheppard had an understandably patchy debut. Last season was a pleasant surprise. Repeating it obviously wouldn’t be. The Rockets got stung—it’s time to apply the ointment and take the lessons with them into the next 81 games.
