On March 7, Beijing time, the Rockets defeated the Grizzlies at home 123:112, ending a 12-game losing streak, rising from the league's penultifier to the league's penultimate no. 2, while the Grizzlies lost the game, slipping from no. 2 in the West to No. 3 in the West.
This game is a typical rocket game this season, and the rockets finally won the game in an atypical way, and this atypical way reflects the rocket's reconstruction gradually on the right track.
The Rockets' losses this season are actually the same destination, and there are these aspects that are not done well:
The Rockets' offensive stability is poor, often without power in the third quarter;
The Rockets' defense is not doing well, including interior rebound protection and rim protection;
The rocket's defensive flexibility and depth are not done well, the change of defense is often wrong, and the opponent can tear apart the rocket's defense line many times;
The Rockets made too many mistakes and were played too many offensive and defensive conversions by the opponent;
Therefore, the Rockets' game often presents a situation of not defending and fighting with the opponent, but the Rockets' offensive resources, as well as the team's offensive core grade and strength are not enough, resulting in poor offensive stability, once encountering high-intensity defense, it is very easy to have offensive power outages, resulting in great ups and downs in the attack, plus the Rockets have almost no defense, often completely collapsing in the third quarter.
The Rockets' management and coaching staff also knew about the Rockets' situation and had thought of many ways to do so, but they all failed.
The Rockets know that Wood's defense is not good, on the offensive end, Wood needs to partner with a space-type interior player, on the defensive end, Wood needs to be paired with a player who can protect the inside frame and rebounds well to help Wood withstand the tall and strong interior line, while Wood's defense, co-defense and change defense are not good, and players in other positions need to wipe Wood's ass on the defensive end.
One of the most suitable Wood's interior partner is PJ Tucker, but the Rockets' rebuilding cycle does not match Tucker's age, after Tucker left the team, the Rockets signed Theis in order to solve Wood's defensive problems, so Silas put on the Wood + Theis interior combination, such an interior combination of defense can be improved, but the offense is gone.
In order to solve the space problem, the Rockets finally gave up Theis, in the interior partner adaptability, the current Rockets have no players and Wood in the offensive and defensive ends of the full compatibility, Tate has a defense, poor projection, Green, Porter and other players The defensive potential is not enough to make up for the disaster brought by Wood on the defensive end.
So, from the first half of the Rockets to the Grizzlies, the Rockets' internal protection was extremely bad, the rebounds in the backcourt were exploded, the basket was crazy to lose points, Wood was frequently targeted, becoming the weakness of the Rockets' defense, the Grizzlies used the block to dismantle, whether it was a small play, a wood, or the Grizzlies Five position to change the defense of the Rockets Other players, basically giving, the Rockets' defense is useless.
And such defensive display, in the Rockets' previous games almost common, as long as Wood is still on the team, such defensive problems still exist, to solve such problems, either the Rockets sent Wood away, or the Rockets found players who were compatible with Wood, in the case of not taking Wood as the core, this does not seem to be the focus of the Rockets.
The Rockets can win the game this game because they improved the second point, the Rockets changed the problems and problems of the offensive power outage in the third quarter, coupled with the Grizzlies' three-point shooting, giving the Rockets the opportunity and hope to chase points.
In the Rockets' offensive system, the most stable scoring point at present is Wood, Wood basically belongs to the Rockets to kill a thousand self-loss eight hundred, there are indeed two brushes on the offensive end, but in the defensive end to lose points is not ambiguous, Wood's offensive stability is not good, encountering high-intensity confrontation, or the opponent shrinks the inside line, Wood's feel declines, then Wood's stability on the offensive end is greatly reduced.
Another veteran of the Rockets, Eric Gordon, has greatly reduced his role and desire to attack in the Rockets, coupled with Tate's offense mainly under the basket, encountering an All-Star level interior line, Tate's offensive efficiency will be affected.
The biggest variable of the Rockets on the offensive end is actually the focus on cultivating Green and Porter, and in the second half of this game, it was Porter and Green who stepped forward successively to change the Rockets' lack of offensive strength.
The variables of Porter and Green stem from the progress of the two, Porter's offensive feel and offensive selectivity are improving, Porter's organizational ability is also improving, when the Rockets need to score the most, Porter can stand up, and in the fourth quarter, Green can show more talent and personal efforts to bring progress, the Rockets outside of Wood, Green and Porter can stand up and score, prompting the Rockets' starting lineup to appear in a situation where all are soldiers, rather than Wood's state directly determines the state of the whole team.
The efficiency improvement on the offensive end of the Rockets, the direct result is the increase in the enthusiasm and vitality of the players' defense, prompting the Rockets' defensive focus and defensive level to a certain extent, in the case of the Grizzlies' three-point second half, the momentum of the two teams completely changed, and finally the Rockets won the game later.
This game, the most important significance for the Rockets is that the confidence and vitality of young players have been thoroughly demonstrated, the progress of Green and Porter is very obvious, in the case of Shen Jing and Christopher there are still many needs to improve, the ladder structure of rocket reconstruction is obvious, green and Porter's progress is not accidental, which is more important than victory for the Rockets, the confidence and growth of young players is the most precious game content of the Rockets' current game.