Houston Rockets SURVIVE Ugly Battle Against Mavericks | Kevin Durant & Alperen Sengun DELIVER Late
Houston Rockets SURVIVE Ugly Battle Against Mavericks | Kevin Durant & Alperen Sengun DELIVER Late
Houston Rockets survive their ugliest performance of the season, grinding out a 110-102 victory over the Dallas Mavericks despite shooting just 27.6% from three-point range. Can a team’s floor still produce wins when everything goes wrong?
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down how the Rockets’ core competitive advantages—rebounding dominance, free throw shooting, and interior size—carried them through a game they arguably deserved to lose. The analysis covers Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun’s clutch fourth-quarter heroics, Ime Udoka’s game-changing third-quarter adjustment with Aaron Holiday, and Amen Thompson’s elite cutting ability that has him ranked third in the NBA. Key concerns emerge around the team’s zone defense vulnerability and Reed Sheppard’s growing pains, while Steven Adams and Clint Capela’s physical presence continues punishing opposing centers.
Discover why this “ugly win” reveals both the Rockets’ championship-caliber foundation and the developmental challenges ahead as they navigate life without Fred VanVleet’s steadying influence.
#Rockets #NBA #KevinDurant #AlperenSengun #AmenThompson
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33 Comments
Hilarious to see the Mavs give up on single coverage vs Sengun 😂😂. They said fuck that we’re doubling now with 2 mins left
🚀
Rockets have too many tricks in the pocket….opponents are sometimes lost 🙂
Reed and Tari are literally collapsing the Rockets' defense, and Udoka must stop insisting on these two, who are hunted by all opposing teams and constantly causing turnovers!
With these two on the floor, the Rockets are unable to defend one-on-one or any kind of zone, and their opponents are left with a ton of three-point opportunities. Furthermore, every player who can dribble can easily pass them and dive under the basket, and allowing 100+ points every game is unacceptable!
One of those ugly ass games, doesn’t matter now tho on to the next. The absence of Jabari stuck out to me for sure! He’s become a steady reliable release valve for the offense
Are they still a championship caliber team ?
Was I watching a different game? The Rockets felt like the better team to me. It felt like they were trying to play down to the competition and stepped up at the end.
Reed was nearly making the Rockets lose the game. He did 3 mistakes one after the other during which Dallas made a 7-0 run.
It was way too many turnovers they played sloppy but they were definitely the better team
We missed the brick throwing, but luckily we could make up for it in the evening 😆
DFS and Jabari didn’t play
Man I’m losing confidence with Reed: I’m trying to play it patient but aaron always gon stay ready
This is an advantage of having a kevin durant and a deep team. Rockets can play bad, but can still win. This is a championship team Rockets, right now.
We also didn't have jabari
Shepper checked Alpi’s bag to see if there was a lob dunk. There wasn’t, so we’re good. 😅
We are missing FVV, DFS, and Jabari, and everyone is focused on who the mavs don’t have. We are holding it down. Clamp City Baby!
Shep getting traded
alpi raised my expectations so high made him a disappointment with missing shots a lot in this game.
This game was a reminder of how important Jabari is to this Rockets team. He is their best defender with length that can stay in front of wings trying to drive to the basket off the pick in roll or with dribble penetration. The Rockets were missing that combination of length and lateral quickness last night and it showed because PJ Washington was cooking. Its early in the season but I'm impressed with how Amen has been doing as the primary ball handler. He's made a few careless turnovers but the overall look of it has been solid. Reed just doesn't look ready for the physicality of NBA basketball. His physical stature on the court and how he gets moved around is more alarming than the mishaps he had last night.
I have seen what I needed to see from Sheppard lol. His dumb turnovers are going to lose us a game in the playoffs. Trade him and a 3rd round pick for Jrue Holiday. He is old but we don’t need him to play 40 minutes a night. Bring him off the bench with Eason, and that’s a nasty bench squad
Three take aways from the game:
1- we lack off ball movement, hence the sloppy passing happens.
2- we lose the ball whenever we rush the transition. We should know when to slow down.
3- we really forget the kickout passes and our guys are safely triple teamed when driving inside leaving a totally empty Tari, Reed or Josh waiting outside for nothing.
Bonus – we lack a defensive coordinator
Reed Sheppard has no business in the NBA. Just because you had a lucky year at Kentucky shooting doesnt mean that translates to the NBA. Hell be the next one out the door because if youre 6ft2 and cant split the defense and get into the paint at will as a PG NO ONE is afraid of you. Hes beginning to suck on Defense as well. He gets first stepped a lot by average speed players. He doesnt know where he needs to be to even just help by positioning.
In order for your game to translate to the NBA you must have 2 of the following 7 traits to be a garbage timer bench warmer, 3 to be a rotation journeyman, 4 to be a starter, 5 to be a all-star superstar max contract, 6 to be a HoFmer top 75, all 7 to be Jordan the goat.
Elite athleticism
Elite defense
Elite Rebounding
Excellent shooting
Excellent ball handling
Excellent passing playmaking
Excellent BBall IQ.
The only two that Reed even remotely has the beginnings of are defense and shooting however hes so raw on both that hes just taking up space on the court. I dont see him getting any better. Maybe in 6 years when the talent comes down in the NBA and hes learned little tricks he can find a way to get 12 or 13 shots up and make 3 of 4 from deep per game on 5 of 10 shooting with 4 ast and 5 floaters/Jay's from 10 to12ft.
Our big 3 are Sengun, KD, and Bari in that order. If anyone of them are put youll start seeing everyone else start fuckin up with the trickle down effect. I swear no one could pass, rebound, or dribble against the mavs yesterday. It was so difficult to watch. Luckily after stinking it up the Rockets won. Amen is beginning to scare me. He has regressed for all that shot making and ball handling in the summer he looks like he still in high school. Starting to give JG vibes. Amen has Elite athleticism, and all star defense, however he needs to take the next step in IQ, playmaking, and shooting.
Can we talk about how cam left Houston and isn’t even starting for sorry wizards
I think it is important to state a few things: 1) the most important winning stat is rebounding and we should dominate that every game. 2) we are so tall and big that we are wearing down the other team over the course of the game, which is why the other teams are fouling us so much. 3) we only hit 20 of 30 free throws, if we hit, let's say 25 of those and this game isn't close. These are professional players, they need to be able to hit free throws 4) To me, KD's age is showing a little bit, on a couple of scramble plays, you could tel he didn't have the flexibility/athleticism to get in there. He also had two CRITICAL TOs on one play that could have cost us. Of course, he hit those to 3 pointers to make up for it. Makes me think our window with KD might be this year and MAYBE next year.
All the casuals that are crapping on Read Shephard… I remember exact same words used on Jabari…for 3 seasons! And now all of you are praying he returns asap.
So judging Reed after 6 games…is pretty lame.
This is the way GS did us last year. We would win 3 qtrs and lose in the 4th.
PJ wouldn't have been able to do that with Jabari. You can't overlook Jabari's impact on defense
They played casual, what some call down to the competition alot of coaches go to the bench bc it was effort related. idk Tari 6 of 9 is pretty eff but doesn't slot into your agenda of trading him to free up salary..just typing that feels stupid rubbing off.
Shout out to holiday, always ready!! 🚀
Great game.
I reckon we should’ve started with double bigs, but we didnt. Might have set a better tone
Let's forget about Fred totally different squad on defense you see how important jabari is let's just watch and see just one week
I purchased NBA league pass. I watched the first quarter of the game. Then I canceled league pass. I can’t watch the Rockets if they’re gonna play Reed Shepherd. It’s the worst.