{"id":175016,"date":"2026-01-29T12:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=175016"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:35:13","slug":"do-houston-rockets-have-wemby-or-thompson-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/29\/do-houston-rockets-have-wemby-or-thompson-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Houston Rockets Have a Wemby Or a Thompson Problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets lost 111-99 to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. The standout matchup of the evening was Spurs \u201ccenter\u201d Victor Wembanyama<\/a> guarding Rockets \u201cguard\u201d Amen Thompson<\/a>. Thompson was unable to punish the assignment because of his lack of a three-point shot. Does the issue spell doom for Houston?<\/p>\n

Do Houston Rockets Have a Wemby Or a Thompson Problem?<\/h2>\n

Thompson\u2019s stats on the night, for the most part, don\u2019t look too bad. The six-foot-seven wing\/guard hybrid<\/a> was Houston\u2019s leading scorer with 25 points on 11-of-23 shooting. He also had seven rebounds, four assists, four steals, a block, and only two turnovers. Despite that, the Rockets went -15 in his 36 minutes of action. Partly, that\u2019s due to his very telling 0-for-0 from the three-point line.<\/p>\n

But Thompson doesn\u2019t normally take a lot of threes at just 1.8 per game. And of those he does attempt, he converts on just 19.3% of them. And yet he still averages 18.3 points per game on decent efficiency<\/a> (thanks to a starkly contrasting 80.2% from the free throw line). Even against Wembanyama, Thompson was enjoying success as a pick-and-roll ball handler with the oft-forgotten<\/a> Clint Capela<\/a>, of all people, as the roll man. But Wembanyama was defending the play as a traditional drop big.<\/p>\n

The Spurs made the strategic adjustment to put their alien superstar center on Thompson directly at the end of the second quarter. That is, to nominally have Wembanyama on Thompson, but mainly so that he could ignore him and act as a roamer instead. Thompson was left wide open on the perimeter but couldn’t make San Antonio pay. It resulted in an immediate stop, and they stuck with it for the second half. As a result, Thompson went from a 5-of-7 first half to a 6-of-16 second. Wembanyama (28 points, 16 rebounds) had 4 of his 5 blocks in the second half.<\/p>\n