The Houston Rockets will begin their playoff series versus the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. Despite qualifying for the playoffs outright as the fifth seed, Rockets fans have already had a taste of the action via the Play-In tournament. That’s because of the airborne antics of former Rocket Jalen Green against the Golden State Warriors. Green’s new team, the Phoenix Suns, defeated the Warriors in the second round of the Play-In Tournament on Friday. Whatever happens from here, the game represents closure for the Green era of Rockets basketball.
What Jalen Green’s Warriors Rout Means To Rockets Fans
Green was sensational against the Warriors on Friday. He shot 70% from the field, making 8/14 three-pointers while going 6/6 from two. He had 36 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals, three blocks, and was a +22 in 39 minutes of action. It was a superstar performance delivered on the second-biggest stage of Green’s career.
The biggest stage of Green’s career? Last season’s seven-game first-round series with the Rockets. The opponent? The Golden State Warriors. Green didn’t play quite so well.
For the series, Green averaged 13.3 points, on 37.2% shooting from the floor and 29.5% from three. He was almost a total no-show in six out of seven games. In the final game that ended Houston’s season at home, Green scored eight points on eight shots. It was his last game as a Rocket.
Green’s Time as the Rockets’ Centerpiece
The Houston Rockets’ front office isn’t the kind to throw anybody under the bus. Nonetheless, it’s generally believed that last year’s Golden State series was the final straw that led to the Kevin Durant trade. Green was sent to Phoenix as the centerpiece of a package to bring the Hall of Famer to Houston.
Plenty of Rockets fans had been out on Green long before that. Nobody doubted Green’s potential to have monster games like the one he had on Friday. He even had a similar game against Golden State in that fateful playoff series. In Game Two, Green shot 13/25 from the field and 8/18 from three to finish with 38 points in a 109-94 Rockets win.
Being only the second game of the series, many tricked themselves into thinking Green had figured something out. He’d gotten over understandable first-game jitters. But that version of Green wasn’t to be seen again. The highest he would go on to score in the series was 12 points.
Green’s inconsistency made him impossible to rely on as an impact player for Houston. His track record versus the Warriors, a major Houston rival, was particularly ugly, even before the playoff series. That doesn’t mean that Rockets fans don’t wish him well.
Green’s Greener Pastures
There are positive signs that Phoenix provides a better environment for Green than Houston did. The biggest one is that he doesn’t have to be the primary perimeter threat. That responsibility falls to Devin Booker instead. Green’s backcourt partner in Houston was Fred VanVleet. VanVleet is a caretaker of the basketball. He can run an offense as per the guidelines in the textbook. Nobody was altering their defensive coverages to account for him. Booker is the kind of perimeter scorer that defenses have to throw the book at.
Green turned up in Phoenix’s first Play-In game as well. The Portland Trail Blazers emerged victorious, 114-110, but Green had 35 points on 14 of 29 shooting from the field. It wasn’t awe-inspiring, but it was the kind of performance you want from your star in a losing effort. It was certainly a very far cry from his bad playoff games last year.
Still The Same Jalen Green?
None of this is to say that Green is necessarily a different player from the one Houston fans thought they were giving up. In an injury-ravaged first season with Phoenix, Green looked his normal self. His per-36 minutes numbers were in line with previous seasons. His shooting splits were the worst since his sophomore campaign.
In the play-in game versus Golden State, Green’s longtime foil, Draymond Green, looked noticeably out of sorts. Before being ejected from the game in fitting Draymond fashion, he was biting on pump fakes and going for reach-around steals like a far lesser defender. Maybe Green figured out how to use his speed to undo the canny defender. Or maybe, at this point, the Warriors have just kicked the roster age a little too far down the road.
Onward And Upward
Green’s rhythm-based game is likely to trip up versus the hyper-aggressive defense of Phoenix’s next opponent as well. The Oklahoma City Thunder will try not to let him get going. If he is indeed the same player as in Houston days, if he doesn’t start feeling it early, he’ll shrink into himself as the game goes on. And if he truly has evolved as a player, moving on from Houston might have been just the nudge he needed.
Some speculate that Friday night’s game was the last time Warriors head coach Steve Kerr will prowl an NBA sideline. Even if superstar Stephen Curry remains, the Warriors’ dynasty as we know it would effectively be over. The Warriors’ dynasty that kept the James Harden Rockets ringless, broke so many Houston hearts, might have been ended by a discarded Green. Whatever happens in Houston and Green’s next chapters, Rockets fans should always have a place in their healing hearts for Green.
© Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
