After the game against the Kings, the Rockets will have another conversation with the Kings at home on April 2. It's no secret that the Kings don't want to win, and the Rockets obviously don't want to win, so in the first meeting between the two teams, the Rockets looked like they were playing hard, but in reality they didn't do their best at all. Jaylen Green and Porter Jr. both scored 30+ points, and Porter Jr. unexpectedly scored his first career triple-double, with Jaylen Green scoring a career-high 32 points.
Compared with Porter Jr. and Green, what is more noticeable about this game is naturally some changes in the way the Rockets' lineup is employed. In this game, Gordon and other 3 players did not play, Shen Jing also failed to play due to injury, Silas gave Garuba the opportunity to play the main center, which is also the first time in Garuba's career in the NBA to start. However, compared to the main center Garruba, as well as the two forwards Matthews and Tate, the Rockets' bench players seem to have performed better.
Looking at the statistics first, Matthews, the main small forward, scored 3 points on 1-of-5 shooting in 28 minutes, and big forward Tate scored 7 points on 3-of-9 shooting in 24 minutes, with both plus-minus -19. Whether it's individual playing time, shots or personal data, Matthews and Tate, the rockets' starters, have no bright spots at all. Judging by the average performance of the season, the performance of the two should not be so bad.
But Silas has long said that it will give bench players, especially young players, more opportunities to perform, matthews and Tate, have already proved themselves in the long NBA schedule, the two of them continue to stay with the Rockets next season is a "high probability event", so there is no need to fight for the last few games. This can be seen in their plus-minus - when the two came on, the Rockets lost 19 points.
Looking at the other 3 substitutes, Christopher appeared in 24 minutes with 6 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 5 steals, Martin Jr. 11 points, 6 rebounds and 1 block in 24 minutes, Fernando played one of the best performances of his career, he contributed 17 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block data in 24 minutes.
The 3 substitute players have played more than 20 minutes, in addition, the plus-minus of all 3 of them is +16, that is to say, these 3 substitutes are different from the double forwards Matthews and Tate, they really did their best when they played, otherwise there would be no plus or minus of +16.
It also means that when these 3 players play, the Rockets can win the Kings by 16 points! If the 3 substitutes did not do their best, it is estimated that no one will believe it.
From the two data of playing time and positive and negative values, it can be seen that in the game with the Kings, the rocket team's main double forward is "paddling", and the game is just a cutscene. But Fernando, Martin Jr. and TOEFL are really playing with all their might. The Rockets' main players have played an extremely important role in the game this season, outperforming the bench players in terms of playing time and ball possession.
But now it's different, because it has entered the final stage, so the Rockets' employment method is also secretly transforming - young players, especially marginal benches, will have more opportunities to perform, and the playing time and ball rights of major rotators will be reduced accordingly. This is exactly what the Rockets expected - in the case of more losses, they can also train new people, killing two birds with one stone.