The NBA regular season continues, with the East and West ushering in a strong and weak dialogue, and the Heat are sitting at home to face the Rockets.
As a Western Fish Belly team, the Rockets have limited competitiveness this season, and the core goal is to cultivate young players, but in the last game, the team beat the Western Conference Dark Horse Grizzlies, ending the team's long 12-game losing streak, and the whole team is in full swing.
In contrast, in terms of the Heat, after the introduction of Lowry this season, the overall combat effectiveness of the team has improved significantly, and the muffled fortune has raised the ranking to the first place in the East.
As soon as the game began, although Wood, Schroeder and Gordon were all absent due to injury, after the last game to beat the Grizzlies, the confidence of the Rockets' youngsters increased significantly, especially the three-pointers in quick succession, and the Rockets dominated by the rebound, taking an early lead.
Although Butler has since stepped up to solve the problem and helped the team narrow the point gap, by the end of the first quarter, the team has fallen seven points behind.
In the second quarter, the Rockets continued to work hard to establish a double-digit lead in one go, but after the bench debuted, the Heat's Hiero carried the offensive flag and soared 5 three-pointers in a single quarter to help the Heat complete the rebound and lead by 4 points at the end of the half.
The Heat continued their form in the second half of the second quarter and have always dominated the field, especially on the defensive end.
Coupled with the blossoming inside and outside the offensive end, the Rockets' young players obviously can't keep up with the rhythm of the game, and the point difference has also been stretched to double digits, and by the end of the third quarter, the Heat have a 12-point advantage.
Entering the final quarter of the scramble, the Heat continued to exert their strength, the point difference was further widened, and the Rockets were also clearly completely limited by the Heat's defense, and finally the Heat defeated the Rockets 123-106 to achieve three consecutive wins to sit in the first place in the East.
Throughout the game, the healthy Heat proved with strength that they were reasonable title contenders this season.
In the case of once falling behind by double digits, it was with a solid defensive system and stable offensive performance that it quietly completed the reversal, just like the Heat's muffled fortune in the East this season.
At the end of the game, Hiroh blasted down 31 points, 2 boards and 3 assists, Butler scored 21 points, 7 boards and 4 assists, Tucker 11 points and 12 boards, Adebayo 18 points and 10 boards, Dunro 13 points and 2 assists, and Oladipo 11 points and 4 assists.
On the other hand, the Rockets, although the team lost the game, but as a rebuilding team, the Rockets can be described as a clear loss and win.
On the one hand, after the team lost, it further consolidated the league's bottom position, making it convenient for the team to pursue the first signing this summer.
On the other hand, the team has cultivated young players in the game, and the performance of the three new stars is remarkable, but the list still needs to stay up for a while.
The three new stars are Green, Porter Jr. and Christopher, of which the leader Green continued to play hot performances, playing 31 minutes, shooting 8 of 16, scoring 20 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists and 0 turnovers, including 5 of 7 shooting in the first quarter, and scoring 14 points.
Kevin Porter Jr. played 29 minutes, shooting 7-of-15, 5-of-11 from three-point range and 3-of-4 from the free throw line, scoring a team-high 22 points, five rebounds and one assist from outside, and also no mistakes.
Christopher, who came off the bench, also delivered a good performance, scoring 16 points, 3 boards and 3 assists.
Although the performance of The Eye Green has gradually improved, Porter Jr. has also changed his previous thorn-headed attributes and greatly reduced the number of mistakes.
However, there are still many problems with the Rockets' use of Green, especially in the first quarter when Green's state is extremely hot, Silas still adopts a regular rotation and does not arrange any specific tactics for Green.
In the future, if the Rockets can get another top three rookies, replace a good coach, introduce a veteran guard, and adjust Porter Jr. to the role of the sixth man, then Green's development is expected to go further.