On December 12, Beijing time, the Rockets lost to the Grizzlies 106:113 on the road, and suffered two consecutive defeats after seven consecutive wins, losing the first game in the last 3 consecutive away games.
In this game, many players from both sides are suspended, the Grizzlies Morant, Jarren Jackson, Clark and other important rotation players are absent, while the Rockets Wall, House, Green, Porter, Garruba and Gordon are absent from this game, among these players, Gordon's absence has a very great impact on the Rockets.
To this end, Rockets head coach Silas has lined up a starting lineup of Augustine, Matthews, Tate, Theis and Wood, which is Augustine's first entry into the starting line this season, which is also another attempt by Silas to abandon the double interior combination during the recent 7-game winning streak, but the effect is mediocre.
Silas put such a starting lineup is understandable, because Gordon is suspended due to injury, the starting players lack an organizational defender, Silas put Augustine on the starting line-up, is to let Augustine organize and connect, and in the alternate transition section, use Christopher to play the organizational defender, Shen Jing as the internal line of the organization, the two can carry out organizational and offensive double linkage.
However, Augustine entered the starting lineup, and did not play a corresponding role, the Rockets in the case of putting on the double inside line, the team's offensive space significantly deteriorated a lot, while the tacit understanding between the players was greatly reduced, the players did not know how to run, how to pass, after getting used to a big four small, suddenly re-enabled the double inside line, for the player's adaptation needs a certain period, the development of the offense is a blow, on the offensive end, Augustine sent a total of 2 assists, but correspondingly appeared 3 mistakes, It shows that the rocket's starting lineup is not well adapted, the tacit understanding of the players is not good, which directly leads to the poor development of the team's offensive development, resulting in poor offensive efficiency, and the players have not played the corresponding characteristics.
Very obvious is Tate, who scored only 7 points on 3-of-8 shooting and had a plus-minus of -20 on the floor, and Matthews scored only 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting, with a plus-minus of -18 on the field.
The most intuitive reaction of the double inside line is that the difficulty of the Rockets to hit the basket has become greater, less of Gordon's strong point, Tate has not played out because of the poor space of the offense, Matthews has not played out because the Grizzlies are very targeted defense, Theis is also a very chicken rib-like presence on the offensive end, and the Rockets' starting lineup offensive efficiency is very low.
Silas put up a double interior line configuration in this game, in fact, it is considering letting Theis against Adams, in the case of Wood's power against Adams, Silas used Theis against Adams, let Wood pair up with Sledgehammer Anderson, reduce Wood's defensive pressure, but such a double interior line combination, most of the time this game did not play its role, specifically in the inside line, the Rockets lost a lot of rebounds in the backcourt, giving the Grizzlies a lot of second offense opportunities, in the first quarter the Grizzlies converted the opportunity to attack twice into three points, In the second half, the Grizzlies converted frontcourt rebounds into interior scoring, and after the Rockets lost their rebounds in the backcourt, the continuity of the defense was not good, resulting in the Rockets not knowing how to better execute the defensive strategy due to the presence of Theiss.
Rockets on the defensive end, another problem that appears is that it is too easy to let the opponent break through to the inside line, Brooks repeatedly let the opponent take a step, Augustine let the opponent take a step many times, Nuwaba repeatedly let the opponent step over, even Christopher also let the opponent step by step many times, the Rockets have too many problems on the defensive end, missing a lot of vacancies, the first half was sanctioned by the Grizzlies, and the feel of the Grizzlies in the second half dropped significantly, resulting in a stalemate between the Rockets and the Grizzlies.
In this game, although the Rockets lost, for the Rockets, the most important thing to think about is the configuration of the double interior line, whether it needs to be continued, in a very targeted staffing situation, Theis and Wood are indeed very unmatched at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, Tess is a good player, but Silas's use of Theis is obviously inappropriate, which requires Silas to think, how to maximize the value and role of Theiss, even if trading Theiss, such performance will not enhance the trading value of Theiss.