On Friday night, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka looked on as his team lost its third straight playoff game to the Los Angeles Lakers. It put them down 0-3. No NBA team has recovered from such a deficit to win a seven-game series. Frankly, Houston’s season looks over. Udoka’s tenure with the franchise is likely at an end as well. What’s left for Rockets fans in Game 4 is a possibly final test on whether their current core can work in a post-Udoka world.
Is Game 4 The Final Test For Rockets’ Roster Experiment?
There were already a few positive signs for Houston’s young core in Game 3. The Rockets’ home crowd brought a better performance out of them, as expected. They forced overtime after being down the entire second and third quarters and most of the fourth.
All-Star Alperen Sengun had his first star-player performance of the series. He had 33 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 assists with 3 steals and a block. He went 15 of 27 from the field and was a +10 overall, playing nearly 47 minutes in the four-point loss.
Amen Thompson had a productive outing as well. He had 26 points on 8/14 shooting, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks.
Those two players are the cornerstones of the current Rockets core. A game where they both play as well as you could ask of them should be a near surefire win.
How It All Went Wrong
But the Rockets’ dysfunction reared its head at the worst possible time. The Rockets managed to fit not one but two back-breaking turnovers into the final 30 seconds of regulation. They also found time to foul a bad shooter on a three-point attempt. However, that’s hardly an appropriate way to describe Marcus Smart in this series.
Neither Sengun nor Thompson was directly involved in these plays. Even so, what some NBA observers are asking themselves is if they aren’t at the center of the roster issue that caused them.
The Rockets don’t have a point guard. That’s been a glaring weakness for the team all season. It was inevitable that it would be when they lost Fred VanVleet to injury before the season even started.
But the ball doesn’t strictly need to wind up with a point guard in these situations. Ideally, you want it in the hands of your star ball handler, be they a point guard, a shooting guard, or a wing. Arguably, any player you trust to have the ball in that situation is a star by default. Houston’s problem is that neither of its build-around players is a ball-handler.
Does that mean that for Sengun and Thompson to be viable together, they have to always be paired with a third star who can handle the ball? That’s a pretty significant requirement considering the impositions their pairing already makes on a roster.
What A Sengun-Thompson Pairing Needs
As two non-shooters, they need plenty of spacing around them. The Rockets’ front office clearly shot itself in the foot this year with their lack of shooting on the roster. On top of that, Sengun is already someone the Rockets need to keep out of the action on defense as much as possible. That means the Rockets need the other players in their rotation to hold their own on that end.
Enter Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard, the players whose final-minute turnovers cost the Rockets the win in regulation. However, Smith’s skill set is exactly what a Sengun and Thompson pairing needs. He’s a decent shooter and a steady, switchable defender. Smith actually had a mostly very good game on Friday night. He shot 6 of 10 from three and was a +4 with 24 points.
If Smith could handle the ball in crunch-time situations as well, he would be a star. Then he’d have to be paid accordingly. Instead, he’s an essential role player. In late-game situations such as he was in, the star ball handler should be doing everything in his power to make Smith’s pass to him as straightforward as possible.
Meanwhile, Sheppard is a ball handler. It’s not his greatest strength – that’s supposed to be his shooting. Unfortunately, through three games of this series, he’s currently a sheepish 12 of 45 from the field. But if Sheppard were a great ball handler and a great shooter in the playoffs, he’d be a star player, too. Some Rockets fans hold out hope he may become one one day. This series has certainly shown that he isn’t one yet.
The Rockets’ 3rd Star
The fact is, the Rockets had a third star who could theoretically handle the ball in Game 2 of their series. Kevin Durant also fits the bill as someone who can undeniably shoot, and even hold his own, okay, defensively. Of course, the Rockets’ arguably lackluster package for KD was enough because he’s 37 years old, and that’s a big part of why he hasn’t been available in two of the three games so far and is questionable for Game 4.
But Durant also had nine turnovers in the Game 2 loss. So, realistically, you do still also need a point guard, even with a star ball handler. You could try to get a star point guard, but what star point guard wouldn’t be a defensive liability alongside Sengun?
The Rockets’ Game 4
It’s already a huge ask to build a championship-level roster around Thompson and Sengun. To really believe it’s possible, they’ll have to prove something in Game 4. We already know they need defenders, shooters, a point guard, and a star ball handler. There’s one role they have to be able to fill themselves. They have to show they can be the leaders.
The Rockets winning the series is a near statistical impossibility at this point. But a team that gets swept demonstrates a failure in leadership. Everybody knows that Durant isn’t a natural leader. Udoka’s post-game rant made his own leadership deficiencies clear as well. Thompson’s post-game suggestions aren’t enough. It’s up to Thompson and Sengun not to let this team lose four games in a row. It’s their final test for the season. If they can pass, it might attest that their partnership has Finals potential after all.
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