Rockets Get PUNKED By Spurs in Tournament Opener | Kevin Durant’s EIGHT Turnovers Reveal FATAL Flaw?
Rockets Get PUNKED By Spurs in Tournament Opener | Kevin Durant’s EIGHT Turnovers Reveal FATAL Flaw?
Houston Rockets fall to San Antonio Spurs 121-110 in a game they dominated early but couldn’t finish. What went wrong when an 11-point lead evaporated?
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down the critical failures that cost the Rockets their in-season tournament opener. The Spurs crushed Houston on the glass with 33 second-chance points from 15 offensive rebounds, exposing the Rockets’ zone defense and lack of hustle. Kevin Durant’s 8 turnovers against aggressive double teams revealed systemic problems without Fred VanVleet running the offense. Reed Sheppard delivered his best offensive performance with 16 points and 6 assists, but his defensive liabilities forced Ime Udoka into zone coverage that opponents are now exploiting. Alperen Sengun’s 25 points came with questionable shot selection, settling for jumpers instead of attacking smaller defenders when Victor Wembanyama sat with foul trouble.
Discover why the double-big lineup backfired and how the Rockets must adapt to teams selling out to stop Durant.
#Rockets #NBA #KevinDurant
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46 Comments
Turnovers & Defense Achilles heel. they out hustled us ā¦they outmatched usā¦.they put they stomp the out the stamp on that shit.
I like reed but heās to slow
Can Rockets get PG in December ā
KD is old and plays slow he shouldnāt be holding on the ball like that , he shooting guard not point guard he take to long to move the ball which cause ball get snatched off his hand š , Rockets need PG in December ASAP
K.D is gonna blame the media for the lost and go rant on social media. Dude is a clown and full of feminine energy. . Rockets aren't winning anything with him.
Kevin Durant's defense is awful and his offensive game is very predictable. He only attempts mid range 10/ 15 feet jump shots.Never takes it to the rack. Avoids physical contact. And has no leadership qualities to help elevate a team.
I will take responsibility to blame Ime for this loss. Ime' s Rockets been good at defence, but always lacked at offence.
Spurs are just definitely the WAY better team…
Spurs own Texas….and soon the entire NBA league….!!!!!
Go Spurs Go
Yes sir. We got punked. We need a JYD out there to set the defensive tone. A Mario Ellie, Ron Artest, PJ Tucker
Coach not who ya'll thought he was, he has so many faults.
Let's be honest, Cooper Flagg is 18 and a real rookie player in NBA, but as a point guard he plays both side of the game a miles better than Reed, the difference is physical talent that Reed will never have! Reed is the weakest link in every manner, a biggest defensive liability, even the worst players on opposing teams to set career highs against him. The opposing team's coaches allow him to play the ball because he disrupts the Rockets' offensive flow, otherwise their guards would literally force him to swallow the ball by not allowing him to make a two-point shot, let alone a three-pointer!
By putting the wrong players on the court, the Rockets are giving up a lot of fastbreak points with foolish turnovers that disrupt the offensive flow, they can't rebound, they can't defend one-on-one or zone defense properly, and shots don't go in because their offensive organization is broken.
The Rockets lost this game because of Udoka's stubbornness, his inability to read the opponent and the game on the court, and his insistence on his wrong choices. And the Rockets miss FVV like hell!
If Udoka insists on Reed and Tari (just as he insisted on ignoring the fact that Green and Whitmore were doing more harm than good to the team last year), he won't win a championship this year either!
TELL HIM IME TO STOP GOING ZONE SO MUCH IT COSTED US
Last 2 years HR is like case study. Last year IME finally discovered Big line up , this year unfortunately they are playing w/o PG. I mean w/o PG does not work regardless of Alpi or Amen's performance. HR will have to capitilize the winS as much as possible. When you expect everyone to do evertyhing you can not succeed.Because it's N/A . Even Denver has a PG. Again regardless of Alpi's talents or Amen's . I mean detailed analysis wont suffice. if HR could exceed %50 it will be a huge season and to me will be considered more succesfull than LY. But with current line up , they should develeop defense but again when u expect so much from Alpi & Amen it will backfire. And for KD as far much as he is the best player ever for me , he should able to lead
I have been a Reed hater but over the last few games I have seen improvement both defensively and offensive. He has a way to go especially defensively. I have seen flashes why the Rockets are high on him . He shows moments of fearlessnes. He is shooting over 40 % in 3's while still looking rushed. I can only imagine the 3% will tick up as he actually feels the game slow down. He will probably have a bad game next game š but he is trending in the right direction.
Reed Shephard is useless on defense, itās hard to justify him being on the court if heās completely lost on defense
Way too little discussion in Amen imo. In the 3 losses against good teams this year heās shooting like 37%, has a 9:9 a:to ratio, and has something like 4-5 stocks total, across the 3 games. I think under 5 boards a game as well.
Strengths:
Alpy: low post scoring, playmaking passes
KD: consistent shooting, experience
Jabari, Tari, Okogie: defense and 3s
Reed: 3s and ball handling
Amen: athleticism, defence, quick attacks
Ime: charismatic authority
Weaknesses:
Alpy: defense positioning, too much passing or shooting
KD: aging, turnovers due to bad passing
Amen: ınconsistent shooting, playmaking
Jabari: ball handling
Tari: turnovers due to bad driving
Okogie: inconsistent shooting
Reed: defense, physical weakness, playmaking
Ime: developing offense options, insisting on zone
It's pretty clear we need a pointguard if we truely want to win it all. 0-3 against good teams so far this season.
Even when reed isnāt other there and no double big Ime is still running zone. Dont blame Reed.
The Rockets would have the perfect point guard if they could fuse together Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard. Each has what the other lacks.
I know I'll get a lot of hate for saying this but Ime is simply not a good basketball mind.
I believe in Reed Sheppard.
I think the most recurring trend of this young season is that we really struggle against good defensive teams.
The entire team was ball watching a good portion of the game. It's actually impressive that the game was so close
Since the 1st game in OKC, they're allowing wide open 3s, that's a BIG problem. Barnes looked like Curry hitting those wide open 3s. Durant's 8 TOs really hurt, Alpi needs to play his game instead of expecting whistles evreytime. The calls are quite in favor of SAS yesterday, like JO had a clean steal on Castle and they just called a reaching wtf.
That 12-0 run that they gave up to close the 1st half was basically the game sadly š
SO FAR the positive thing I saw with this team is offensively, nobody can go shot-for-shot vs houston, the 3 losses for me are self inflicted caused by lack of defensive communications, close outs etc. We can't win all 82 games tho, on to the next ššš
Alright. The Spurs put Wemby front and center on their game posterā¦ Meanwhile, the Rockets featured Durant up front, with Okogie on the left, Jabari on the right, and Alpi in the background. Four years of high-level service to this team, and thereās still no respect for Alpi. Guess who ended up as the top scorer? I think while the NBA and the media may underestimate this kid, the real issue is that his own team doesnāt show him the respect he deserves. No matter what he does, they still see him as a European outsider, and they still want an American star to be the āfaceā and ābrainā of the team. This kid deserves respect and if the Rockets wonāt give it to him, heāll definitely find it somewhere else.
And Ime no PG nopppe woorrrrkkk youuuuur double big dude !!!
At full strength we win its that simple.
TOās and rebounds hurt but this lost is on Ime
this lost on ime. why he keep pushed zone. seems it didnt work againts Spurs
Suns and Lakers gave us a perfect script on beating the Spurs n Ime was like nah we good
The rockets didnāt get punked. KDās turnoverās that game were very bad. But, what was worse was that the rockets were making guys like Harrison Barnes look like Steph curry on offence because of their atrocious zone defence.
Ime need to stop playing zone . Play man to man defense . U have young players let dem play man to man D. Stop playing zone every ffin time .
I dont understand all team coming in just doublin and tripple team KD at that old age . Let the man enjoy the game jheez . Rockets need shooters to purnish dis tripple and double team
Maybe Rockets should trade FVV for a PG even tho its hard for me to accept it. It can benefit the team and at the same time help Reed to improve
Great show and Go Rockets!!
Just get pg player for teamā¦Reed is not enough yetā¦Amen is not playing pg positionā¦Alpi,KD, Bari, Tari will play goodā¦
Ime is so stubborn for not changing this tactics most of the time. If the other team is making 3-pointers flying all over like stray cats, that means your zone defense is not working due to either yourself or the other team's ability. Reed is not a good defensive player at all. Jalen was much better than him in that regard. This loss is written on Ime and KD's for so many turnovers and Reed being a disastrous defensive player and the small players not fighting for rebounds.
We need offensive coaching. One of the reason, we turn the ball over is that the Rockets do not create enough space with off ball actions even with guys with high gravity. We have those guys and excellent screen setting bigs but still KD has to get the ball with a defender in his face.
That guy was talking a lot of nonsense about San Antonio. Take your L now.
sign Yuki Kawamura for point guard duty. please stone. thank you
The biggest fixable issue is the rebounding. The biggest issue they won't fix without a PG is ball security.
Jackson When would Reed Sheppard catch a break from you. Your going way over the board with ur criticism and itās becoming annoying. Reed finished the game with a +8 which is great, but all you see is negativity. Iām really disappointed in you. Udoka did not deployed Zone just bcos of Reed ok. He has been using Zone since last season even without Reed just incase you forgot. Udoka deployed Zones both in regular season & playoff against the GSW without Reed. First two games of this season against OKC & Pistons, udoka played Zones all through those games and lost. Did he play Zones in those games bcos of Reed? No. Now that they lost to the Spurs, suddenly udoka is playing Zone bcos of Reed. Common Jackson try to be objective in ur analyses.
If you really watched the Spurs game you would noticed that the Rockets players were all caught ball watching, each time Spurs players back cut to the basket or crash the offensive boards for rebounds. So You wrong in blaming Reed for all that. After that Spurs game, every Rockets supporter should be proud of Reed. Then encourage him to keep working on his defense, same way they kept encouraging Amen to keep working on his jump shot. Iām Really disappointed in ur analyses.š
Reed is not a rookie
I know its only been a lil over a year but reed hurts us more than helps I highkey am done with him
At some point Ime needs to take the brunt of the blame for some of these losses. Not playing Jabari at all in the second half was killing our defense and rebounding for no apparent reason
One thing I also been noticing about alpi which I donāt like is his body language. Like he is complaining about no foul calls too much . Also I didnāt like him slapping the floor on the reed mess up . Like I understand the frustration but still act professional