{"id":112293,"date":"2024-12-15T06:53:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T11:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=112293"},"modified":"2024-12-15T06:53:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T11:53:25","slug":"rockets-shooting-woes-saturday-microcosm-of-otherwise-superb-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/15\/rockets-shooting-woes-saturday-microcosm-of-otherwise-superb-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Shooting Woes Saturday Microcosm Of Otherwise Superb Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets<\/a> have exceeded the expectations of most through their first 26 games. They are 17-9, good for the third-best record in the Western Conference and fifth-best in the NBA. Their upward ascension has continued. After winning 22 games in 2022-23, they won 41 in 2023-24. Houston is currently on pace for around 54 in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

Even the best teams have imperfections. When it comes to the squads with the best records this season, the Rockets biggest flaw seems to be more pronounced than the other teams. That flaw continued in the Emirates NBA Cup Semifinals.<\/p>\n

Rockets Shooting Woes Saturday Microcosm Of Otherwise Superb Year<\/h2>\n

Rockets Shooting Struggles Continue In NBA Cup Semifinals<\/h3>\n

The Rockets valiant effort in the NBA Cup<\/a> came to an end on Saturday. They were defeated in the semifinals to the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> by the score of 111-96. That sets up an NBA Cup Finals matchup between the Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

For Houston, the loss was a microcosm of their main issue throughout the season. That is their shooting accuracy, or lack thereof. In Saturday\u2019s outing, the Rockets shot 35-96 (36.5%) from the field, 11-46 (22.9%) from beyond the arc, and 15-25 (60.0%) from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

The starting lineup, in particular, had their immense struggles of seeing the ball go through the hoop. Some of the not-so-sightly numbers from them include Dillon Brooks<\/a> connecting on just five of 17 shots (4-13 from three). Fred VanVleet<\/a> shot 3-15 from the field, 1-11 from deep. Jalen Green<\/a> didn\u2019t do much better going 5-14 and 1-8 respectively. Alperen Sengun<\/a> shot 6-16 from the field and Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a> went 3-8.<\/p>\n

Altogether, the Rockets starting five made just 22 of their 68 field goal tries and nine of 38 three-point tries. Of their nine players who appeared on Saturday, only Amen Thompson<\/a> shot over 50% from the field, as he went 9-15.<\/p>\n

Now, Houston was matched up against a Thunder team that leads the NBA in numerous defensive categories including points allowed, defensive rating, and field goal percentage against. So perhaps the Rockets outing could be chalked up to facing an elite defense, except it\u2019s been a problem all season.<\/p>\n

The Rockets 43.7%<\/a> shooting from the field is only better than the Charlotte Hornets. They are only better than the Washington Wizards and Orlando Magic<\/a>, connecting on just 32.3%<\/a> from three-point land. Even their freebies have been a struggle, as Houston has made 76.5%<\/a> of their free throws (26th-best).<\/p>\n

Defensive Effort Amongst The NBA\u2019s Best<\/h3>\n

With Houston\u2019s offense struggling so much to shoot with any type of accuracy, how are they 17-9? Well lucky for them, the game is played on two ends.<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the Thunder lead the league in points allowed per game, defensive rating, and field goal percentage again. Which team is second in all of those categories? That would be the Houston Rockets. Houston is giving up 103.7<\/a> points per game, have a 105.3<\/a> defensive rating, and allow the opposition to shoot just 43.4%<\/a> from the field.<\/p>\n

While their defense is mighty impressive, you have to wonder what their ceiling is without better shooting accuracy. The Rockets next play Thursday at home against the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets have exceeded the expectations of most through their first 26 games. They are 17-9, good for the third-best record in the Western Conference and fifth-best in the NBA. Their upward ascension has continued. After winning 22 games in 2022-23, they won 41 in 2023-24. Houston is currently on pace for around 54 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":112311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,31,62],"tags":[4293,4703,772,1244,49820,3256],"class_list":["post-112293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-dillon-brooks","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-jabari-smith-jr","tag-jalen-green"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112312,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112293\/revisions\/112312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}