For 2 days, the Rockets played the Hornets and Lakers first. In a game that has ended, the Rockets lost to the Hornets by a large score, and the record was rewritten from three consecutive losses to four consecutive losses, and the home game against the Lakers on December 29 was very critical for the Rockets, and Silas specially sent two newcomers in this game, Jaylen Green and Porter Jr. Silas's argument is that the two have a high probability of joining forces against the Lakers.
In fact, the Rockets' 4 consecutive losses are not the embodiment of real strength, one is that the Rockets seem to have returned to the old road of competing for the yuan, there is no need to desperately win the game, on the other hand, the Rockets have many players missing, which is also the reason for the team's poor performance. Look at the game against the Hornets, Jaylen Green is missing one game in the rotation, Porter Jr. has not yet returned, Matthews, Martin Jr., DJ Augustine and Jeshawn Tate, the four main rotation/starters are unable to play due to triggering the health and safety agreement. There's also Rockets veteran Wall, who won't play for the Rockets.
Among the 7 players who are absent, if you don't count Wall, then these 6 players who can't play are rocket rotation players or main players, and most of the rockets' rotation players can't play, which also led to a 4-game losing streak to the Hornets.
Silas was also very frustrated after the game, and instead of criticizing the players for not performing well or defending poorly, he said: "We have sent all the existing players to the field." I'm not saying we're playing badly, because I feel like we've worked hard and we have to play a little bit better against a better team. ”
Even Silas has publicly complained about the Rockets' lineup for this game, saying that it's hard to win when your players haven't played much in the NBA. In this game, the Rockets used a super mixed lineup, including absolute main players such as Wood and Gordon, substitute players such as Shinkin and Theis, and more marginal people like Garuba, Knicks and Quinn, who usually have little chance to play.
The 10 players who are suddenly put together will definitely cause the Rockets lineup to not be tacit enough to play the game like this, the Rockets have really tried their best, but there is really no way, compared to the skilled Hornets, the Rockets' temporary mixed lineup can only play to this extent - they really can't beat the Hornets.
But in fact, from another point of view, the Hornets basically use the full main lineup to deal with the Rockets, and the Rockets have also defeated the Hornets at home before, and the Rockets are quite neat in addition to Jaylen Green in that game, if the two teams fight again in the case of players, the Rockets are not afraid of the Hornets. In the final analysis, the Rockets, under the premise of pursuing offensive and defensive improvements, must also find ways to avoid the injury and absence of players, so that the team can win more games in the future schedule.