On January 9, Beijing time, the NBA regular season Rockets challenged the Heat away, before the game, the Rockets were 18-16 ranked 8th in the West, while the Heat was 20-15 and ranked 8th in the East. Rockets starters: VanVleet + Jalen Green + Tate + Smith + Shin Jing, Heat starters: Lowry + Herro + Harkes + Jovic + Adebayo.
In the first quarter of the game, Tate made a layup and scored first, Adebayo responded with a mid-range shot, Jovic made a layup, Jalen Green hit a three-point iron, Herro threw a shot, Van Jordan scored three points, Lowry made a basket, Van Jordan jumped and continued to cut points, Jalen Green hit two free throws, Adebayo had 2 fouls early and had to go off the court to rest, and after a pause, Fan Jordan and Shen Jing took turns to score free throws, Lefu and Harks responded together, Richardson and Jalen Green exchanged three-pointers, Herro scored 5 points in a row, the Rockets rebounded and exploded, Shen Jing was blocked by Lefu many times, Jeff Green split and stopped the bleeding, Richardson hat Amen, Dunroe and Lefu scored three points, and the White Devils appeared and threw three points to stop the bleeding, but the Heat were more accurate from the outside, and Amen made two free throws, and the Rockets trailed by 7 points at 27-34 in the first quarter.
Jalen Green was 1-of-4 in the first quarter and was in poor shape. At the beginning of the second quarter, the White Devils hit a basket, Richardson made a foul, Van Jordan fired outside, the shooting rate of both sides in this quarter was not high, Jalen Green continued to fire on the three-point shot, Deng Roe responded to 2+1, the difference was not big, the Rockets just couldn't overtake, Adebayo scored a layup, Van Jordan hit a three-point shot, Shen Jing hit a three-point shot after a layup, and the Rockets chased to only 4 points left, and Herro responded with 2+1, Richardson scored three points, the Rockets had no rut, the point difference was opened again, Shen Jing and Tate led the team to counterattack, the White Devils also scored a layup, Smith made a jump shot, the Rockets hit a wave, Lowry made free throws and Herro threw in response, Jovic missed two free throws, Holiday fired outside, Smith pressed the whistle to make 2+1, and the two sides fought to 59 at halftime.
Halftime statistics, VanVleet 16 points and 4 assists, Jalen Green 9 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, Shin Jing 9 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, Smith 5 points and 5 rebounds, Tate 5 points, Whitmore 7 points and 3 rebounds. On the Heat side, Herro had 12 points and 2 assists, Richardson had 10 points and 2 rebounds, Lowry had 3 points, Harkes had 7 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, Jovic had 2 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, Highsmith had 3 points and 3 rebounds, Love had 9 points and 4 rebounds, and Dunroe had 9 points.
Yibian fought again, Jalen Green and Jovic didn't score three points at the beginning, Herro hit a three-point shot, Shen Jing responded with a layup, Lowry scored three points, Tate ate ate cake, Jalen Green single-handedly created a foul, the Rockets were not bad during this time, at least they could bite the point difference, but Herro and Adebayo took turns to score, Van Jordan three points quickly stopped the bleeding, Jalen Green also scored a layup, the Rockets were just about to fight back, but Adebayo and Herro kept scoring, the Rockets couldn't prevent it, the difference came to double digits, it was still Van Jordan who made a layup to stabilize the situation, and then the White Devils were even more empty and dunked, the difference was 6 points, and Lefu threw 2+1, the Rockets are helpless, this quarter has narrowed the gap many times, and the Heat will be able to pull away immediately, except for Van Jordan and the White Devils, no one else is allowed, and the Rockets are 82-91 Heat at the end of the third quarter.
In the crucial final quarter of the game, can the Rockets overtake the score? Adebayo dunked with both hands, Harks fired outside, the difference was 14 points, the Rockets did not give up, Amen first made 2+1, and then assisted the White Devils to dunk in the air, but the Heat was also scoring, and the difference in points on the court did not shrink, Dunroe hit a three-point shot, Holiday scored 5 points in a row to respond, Adebayo continued to make 2+1, Van Jordan responded with three points, Shen Jing, Van Jordan and Tate took turns scoring, the Rockets chased to single digits, Dunroe left the court with 6 fouls, Herro fired outside, the difference was 10 points, time was running out, Jalen Green didn't score three points, which was very embarrassing, Green didn't score 1 point in the final quarter, and Lefou's free throws completely ended the suspense of the victory, and finally the Rockets lost to the Heat 113-120.
Rocket stats: Van Vleet 32 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks, 10 of 22 shots, 7 of 14 three-pointers, 5 of 5 free throws, frankly speaking, the Rockets have a problem with tactics, the ball is in the hands of Van Jordan, especially in the last quarter, Van Jordan was lucky in that meal, either he forced a shot, or he ran out of time to throw the pot to his teammates, of course, Van Jordan's style of play has pros and cons, without his hard work, the Rockets would have collapsed early.
Shen Jing had 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals, and he performed very well on the offensive end, but he had almost no defense and was beaten several times by Adebayo. Smith had 10 points and 6 rebounds, and Jalen Green was embarrassed, contributing only 11 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists on 2-of-10 shooting, and did not score in the final quarter. Tate had nine points and four rebounds, Holiday had eight points and four rebounds, Jeff Green had five points and two assists, and Amen had five points and two rebounds.
Whitmore was a big surprise, contributing 11 points and 6 rebounds, shooting 5 of 8, 1 of 2 three-pointers, the White Devils staged 2 violent dunks during the game, and since entering the rotation, the White Devils' performance has been very good, but the playing time is still too little, Udoka can no longer be stubborn, and the White Devils should be given more opportunities, especially when Jalen Green has a bad hand, the White Devils should be reused.
After losing to the Heat, the Rockets' record came to 18-17, falling from 8th to 9th in the West, overtaken by the Suns, the Western Conference play-off region is quite competitive, the Suns, Rockets, Lakers and Warriors, the rankings of these four teams change almost every day, for the Rockets, they have to try to hold the top 10 position, because the 11th place cannot enter the play-offs. Overall, Van Jordan needs to reduce his shot options and pass the ball more, Shin Kyung needs to strengthen his defense, Green needs to improve his consistency, and the White Devils should play more time, these are all issues that the Rockets need to solve.
Heat stats: Herro 28 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, Bam Adebayo 22 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists, Hawks 14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Jovic 6 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, Lowry 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. In addition to the starting five Tigers, the bench player Dunroe had 14 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists, Love had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, and Richardson had 12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. After beating the Rockets, the Heat rose to 6th place in the East.