On December 24, Beijing time, the Rockets lost to the Pacers 106:118 on the road, suffered three consecutive defeats, and the ranking once again slipped to the bottom of the West.
In this game, the Rockets' young new nuclear Jaylen Green ushered in a comeback, Silas lined up the starting lineup for Green, Gordon, Matthews, Tate and Wood, Green returned to enjoy the starter treatment immediately, Brooks was excluded from the starting lineup by Silas.
Green's return brought about changes to the Rockets was immediate, the Rockets' offense became single-handed, Wood and Green played singles consecutively, maintaining the Rockets' score, and Green repeatedly participated in the blocking and demolition with Wood, combining Wood's advantages, and Green improved his projection efficiency.
However, how good Wood and Green are on the offensive end, how bad they are on the defensive end, in the Rockets' system of unlimited changes of defense, Wood and Green have not communicated well with each other many times, resulting in the missing Players blocking and dismantling the players who cut inside, being continuously sanctioned by the Pacers, and breaking the Rockets' internal line.
In the bench connection section, the Rockets take Shen Jing as the organizational point, as well as the Shen Jing offense as the axis, relying on their own independent offensive scores to maintain the point difference, but in the alternate connection section, the Pacers' outside line continues the feel of the starters, playing better than the Rockets, on the one hand, the Pacers' first quarter scores, most of them come from assists, of which Le Vere has 7 assists in the first quarter, while the Rockets only have 6 assists in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Rockets' interior protection had a big problem, the Pacers grabbed too many offensive rebounds, converted too many secondary points, when Jaylen Green came back, the state was very good, hit three points in a row, Wood and Tate had too many independent individual offenses, and on the defensive end, the Pacers used Turner to play Tate, taking advantage of the misalignment advantage, giving and taking advantage of the Rockets' inside line, and overall, the Pacers were the team that relied more on the team, played more reasonably and more efficiently.
The problems that occurred in the first half of the Rockets appeared again in the second half, and in the fourth quarter, the Rockets had a collapse situation, how could not score the ball on the offensive end, the entire fourth quarter of the Rockets only scored a total of 12 points, and almost all of these 12 points were in the middle and late fourth quarter, the Rockets were in a scoring drought, whether it was a substitute, or a starter, the Rockets could not score points, even if Silas replaced Brooks to improve the Rockets' offensive space, the Rockets still could not score points, whether it was Wood, Tate, or Gordon, the attack frame could not score In contrast, the Pacers, LeVert and Turner scored in the Rockets, and the Rockets could not limit it at all, and finally collapsed in the fourth quarter, losing to their opponents and suffering three consecutive losses.
In this game, the Rockets once again broke out of the poor offensive continuity, the team's main attacker offensive stability and grade is not good, and on the defensive end, Wood and Green are two major defensive loopholes, if Green's defensive problem is defensive experience, then Wood's defensive habits and defensive awareness are very problematic.
Although Green showed excellent feel and state on the offensive end, from this game, Silas's positioning and use of Green has changed, when Green made a mistake, Silas immediately replaced it, in the final stage of the fourth quarter, Green was not replaced by Silas, it can be seen that Silas has a new positioning for Green's use, and this positioning is very in line with the level of Green at this stage.
Through this game, Wood's value to the Rockets can be re-evaluated, in the rebuilding of the team, the defense becomes a big colander, the offensive end of the key moments can not digest the ball, to bring a very bad demonstration to young players, coupled with Wood two consecutive games with Brooks and Green argued, the Wood defense assist, Wood did not appear in the right position, such behavior will greatly affect the unity of the team, every high sell wood, is the Rockets should do the most at the moment.