How Houston Rockets Lost To Kings Despite 30/10/5 From Alperen Sengun AND No Sabonis For Sacramento
How Houston Rockets Lost To Kings Despite 30/10/5 From Alperen Sengun AND No Sabonis For Sacramento
Can the Houston Rockets bounce back after their 113-103 loss to the Sacramento Kings? With star players like Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun delivering strong performances, the Rockets still fell short, raising questions about lineup decisions and player roles.
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down the impact of Fred VanVleet’s return from injury and how he apparently reaggravated it during the game, Ime Udoka’s choice to start Amen Thompson over Jabari Smith Jr. and how this affects the team’s dynamics on both ends of the court, plus Nate Williams earning a new standard NBA contract and more.
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34 Comments
Let's be real—keeping this year's goal limited to just making the playoffs to assess the current roster’s potential isn’t entirely unreasonable. But as time goes on, this team looks more and more like a group of guys stepping on each other’s toes, struggling with floor spacing and roles.
Alperen has no shot at getting any looks without fighting tooth and nail—his skill set is being completely wasted. Amen being inserted into the starting five and trying to force his scoring is tanking his defensive focus and pushing him beyond what he's realistically capable of this season. And the biggest issue? This team has no real guard play. How do you expect an offense to show any variety when you don’t even have a ball handler who can create separation off a screen?
At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if they slid down to the 6th seed.
thank you for another good podcast Jackson!. Ramadan Mubarak to all of you who's fasting this month. may every going well with your daily life 😊
Alpi+Amen+Eason should play together not Alpi with Halliday and Tate, this is crazy.
Well I realise how much I miss Vred the Brick days 😂😂
I don't understand why Udoka didn't play Adams against Valanciunas. The man DOMINATES JV. Unless Adams is still carrying an ankle injury, it's like Udoka's never seen this match-up. And doesn't he always say he plays players depending on match-up?
Sengun had 30 pts, but gave up 40 pts by himself… But of course he wont mention that here
This kinda loss was why I was yelling day in and out to trade for Cam Johnson. Terrible offensive reliability. Smith had taken a big step backward this year. Sheppard is being totally wasted on the bench when he could be honing his game in the g- league. 2 or 3 games weren't enough. A major trade or two is needed in off-season. We could improve at PF STILL WANT CAM JOHNSON. We still need a PG that can shoot and hit the ocean from the beach. FVV IS THE WORST SHOOTING PG the Rockets have had in 40 years. He shoots way too many shots. Don't even think he needs to stay as an overpriced backup. This team has been terribly managed this year to me.
What happened to Whitmore at the beginning of the season he was warming up having pretty good games scoring wise, now he gets no minutes and when he does play he seems uninterested…
The kings for some reason are just a bad matchup for us. It’s like all season they keep giving us fits on defense.
Our defense is tanking we are easily letting guys getting blown by and getting to the rim with no effort and they are getting killed in the pick and roll.
Also DeRozan always gives us fits due to how crafty he is in getting to his spots and with his pumpfakes.
As for this lineup yeah it has a huge weakness and that’s poor spacing when teams crowd the paint since Amen isn’t a great shooter along with Sengun teams are going to dare us to hit from three and we can’t rely on Dillion being hit from 3.
I’m sure they could figure it out but by the playoffs Ime might have to go back to Jabari because not only because of his shooting and rebounding.
But his defense actually helps covers Alpi weaknesses on defense that’s why those two really have great chemistry they cover each other weaknesses on both ends on the floor
❤
My team Rockets are collecting losses.😢
I think by this time the coaching team supposed to have figured out what kind of additional players the team needs.
Great show and Go Rockets!
I’ve been saying for months Amen Thompson should go back to the bench when Bari comes back. I understand Amen is better than Brooks, but you can’t put all your best talent in the starting lineup and have the bench struggle. As Jackson pointed out, go back to having the original starting lineup and have Sengun guard the off ball player, it worked when we were #2 in the West. Having the Terror Twins off the bench is better for the team.
Great takes from Jackson as usual.
Why not 2 big guy same time,gave Alpi and SA chance
Demar was cooking got tari on every pump fake and when he knew tari wasn’t going to jump anymore he just was gana just shoot it but one thing I fear about alpi is I hope once he gets a consistent whistle he doesn’t just go searching for fouls
Amen-JG-DB-JSJ-Sengun
Amen and Jalen have improved as a ball handler. Fred can still play 25-30 mins from the bench.
Whenever we face the kings, we forget how to play basketball. I'm tired of it to say the least.
At this point the eye test and the advanced stats tells us the current starting line up is horrible. The OFFRTG and DEFRTG is worse than our original lineup. Not saying it's any particular players fault, they just dont seem to all fit together.
Sengun is lur best player and also the limiting factor. All of our players would be better with a defending, rim running, switchy, athletic center. Sengun takes too long to make his move, takes too many goofy shots that have no chance and kills too many posessions for others to get a rhythm. Amen and Green need to be the primary ball handlers amd creators for better or worse. Sengun needs to get a 3 point shot and be more efficient at rim for team to work.
My thoughts is even if Fred have returned to fitness, the coaches gotta make a bold decision of making Fred to come in from the bench as the sixth man. Jalen & Amen should be allowed to continue to get reps as our back court. Our starting five should be: Amen,Jalen,Jabari,Brooks & Sengun. If the coaches are bold & objective enough, this should be the staring line up going forward. Yes Fred can still control the game from the bench.
Secondly I think before any Rockets game udoka usually preselect a 9 man rotation he would for the game. Surprisingly he wouldn’t go outside of the 9 guys, even if someone in that rotation is under performing .This is a wrong strategic that can hurt the team, if any of the bench guys he preselected for a game is not performing well enough, he should bring in another guy from the bench. And against the sac kings,Jeff & Cam would’ve been valuable. Udoka could shot himself in the foot with his stubbornness
Demar was cooking got tari on every pump fake and when he knew tari wasn’t going to jump anymore he just was gana just shoot it but one thing I fear about alpi is I hope once he gets a consistent whistle he doesn’t just go searching for fouls
FVV Should have never started
If they not going to replace brooks with amen then amen got to come off the bench
Rockets lost because their defense was not good and Amen Thompson/Jabari Smith Jr./Tari Eason/FVV were terrible. I had high hopes for Jabari but hes really had a bad year. I dont understand why hes such an average 3 pt shooter
You still think we need fred? Hell no get a trey young or lamelo asap even morent is a better option shoots the same as fred from 3 but a way better player and playmaker
If you beat a team 3x in the season… are they really better Mr locked on rockets ? Light the beam !! 🟣🔦
Very simple..Sengun needs better players around him… This teams guards have low basketball iq..Raw athleticism and low iq… Nobody says that Sengun is perfect, he has his own flaws and areas to develop. But basketball iq is something hard to develop, it comes from the DNA of a player.. Jalen is an empty scorer, he can score 50 points but he does not dictate game. Amen has zero offense and Udoka has to improve his offensive repertoire..
When Şengün releases the ball nothing happens. He should have had another triple double. Rockets can't shoot so Alpi pushes his luck and tries to do more then he should.
What Jackson gatlin fails to understand is, the kings are a better team without Fox now. Zach Lavine is a better n more efficient shooter than Fox. And Demar is a better closer than Fox in the Cluth. And Keon Ellis is a better on ball defender that Fox is! And Doug Christie is doing a better coaching job than Mike brown was doing… signing Jonas at the deadline was huge for the kings !! 🔦🟣 Light that beam 😎
Jackson my man you are a man of your word, I appreciate the shout out and good work as always on the podcast.
Go Rockets!
Go HOUnds!
Sengun is the main problem here trade him ASAP. Take some veteran player next to Jalen. Jalen is the best piece in Houston.