On January 10, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued to unfold, and the Rockets played at home against the Timberwolves. I thought that the Rockets could recover in this game, but as soon as they were suppressed by the opponents, the Timberwolves quickly pulled the point difference apart, 36 points in a single quarter, and took a 10-point lead; the second quarter continued to erupt, and the single quarter exploded with 39 points, and the half-time had achieved a 21-point lead, and the Rockets were completely passive.
The Rockets continued their previous roster in this game, with Green, Porter Jr., Gordon, Tate and Wood, with Shinkin absent due to injury. The Timberwolves are Russell, Edwards, McDaniels, Vanderbilt and Downs.
After the game began, the Rockets were able to bite the score at the beginning, but when the Timberwolves shot from the outside, they could only watch the point difference gradually widen, plus Towns played easily on the inside. The Rockets' defense is really like a fiction, and it is easily broken by the opponent, and there is no confrontation at all. The problems of the past few games, whether they have not changed at all, or the same old way, were easily scored by opponents again and again, and fell behind the Timberwolves 26-36 in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Rockets' defense is still very poor, the Timberwolves played very easily on the court, the shooting rate has been above 50%, and the ones who can't shoot are their own failures to grasp, not the pressure given to them by the Rockets. In this way, the Rockets were completely suppressed by the opponent on the court, and the point difference was further widened, and the Timberwolves fell behind 54-75 in the half, a full 21 points behind, and the game once again lost suspense.
After half-time, the Rockets were in complete passivity, and the inside line was exploded, including rebounds 17-27 behind, and Wood on the inside line was completely destroyed by Downs. Towns contributed 22 points in the half, shooting 8-of-11 from no pressure; Wood had only five points and three rebounds on 2-of-5 shooting. The Rockets' backcourt double stars also have no feel this time, the two combined 4 of 15, contributing a total of 13 points, while Russell alone on the other side scored 19 points.
The only surprise was Christopher on the bench, who scored 12 points on 5-of-7 and none of the other players scored in double figures.