The Houston Rockets played the Los Angeles Clippers on the road, the final game of the season between the two teams, but both sides seemed to be just going through the motions. After all, the Clippers have locked up the fourth place in the West ahead of schedule, and basically the main rotation has been given time off to prepare for the playoffs. The Rockets, on the other hand, are out of the top 10 and say goodbye to the play-offs early, so both sides seem to have a breeze.
The Rockets ended the season strongly, facing the Clippers who responded with the remnants, the Rockets did not give face at all and had the upper hand from beginning to end. Although in addition to those injured players, even the main point guard Fred VanVleet is also absent, the overall strength of the Rockets is still much stronger than the Clippers today. The last quarter is basically a training time, and the Rockets won smoothly, although they only ranked 11th in the West this season, their 41-win record should be much better than the outside world expected.
Back to this game, the Rockets' three statistics are worthy of praise, and in this game, in terms of rebounding, the Rockets grabbed 8 more than the Clippers, which was too much better than the previous two games. Among them, Amen Thompson scored 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, sending a triple-double for the first time in his career. Of course, if he alone, it should be difficult for the Rockets to take advantage of the rebounding scramble, Jabari Smith has a mediocre hand, but this game grabbed 8 rebounds, as many as the last two games combined, in addition to Jalen Green and Cam Whitmore, each has 6 rebounds.
At the same time, forward rookie Cam Whitmore has obviously risen the ball, averaging 12.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game this season, but Cam Whitmore should still have the impression of strong scoring ability and talent, but the consistency is slightly worse. However, entering the closing stage, Cam Whitmore was more comprehensive, not only contributing 21 points, 6 rebounds, but also 5 assists against the Clippers, and Cam Whitmore also handed out 4 assists in the first two games against the Jazz and Trail Blazers, indicating that his passing ability and teamwork have improved.
In the end, the Rockets defended well, allowing the Clippers to score 105 points, which is quite rare in this era. You could say that the Clippers used a bench lineup, which is not a good reference for this kind of game, but the Rockets also didn't go all out. And the Clippers only shot 8 of 37 from beyond the three-point line in this game, and only 21.6% of the shots were defended, so we need to praise the Rockets' execution and fighting spirit.