Rockets vs. Mavericks Takeaways: Transition Defense, Christian Wood's Revenge, Doncic For MVP
HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets (10-25) ended their three-game road trip Wednesday night in a 129-114 loss to the Dallas Mavericks (20-16) inside the American Airlines Center. Here are three takeaways from the Rockets' embarrassing loss.
Transition defense:
Nothing went right for the Rockets outside the first quarter. But their transition defense may have been the worst part of their play.
"It is about running back," coach Stephen Silas said. "Just run back. No talent is needed. Run back."
Silas mentioned that the team has pride in their offensive rebounding. After all, the Rockets rank first in the league in offensive rebounding averaging 13.5 boards.
But against the Mavericks, Silas said there were several moments throughout the night he felt his team was indecisive between crashing the glass or getting back on defense.
Dallas came into the game averaging a league-low 11.2 in fast break points. The Mavericks recorded 25 fast break points, while the Rockets finished with five.
"We are a team that crash [the glass], Usman Garuba said. "I think their game plan was having the rebounds and make everyone run because we crash the glass very hard. They did surprise us. Every game is different, and the game plan was good, but we have to adjust and learn for the next game."
Christian Wood's revenge game:
Christian Wood's night started on the wrong note. But by the end of the final buzzer, he had a revenge performance against his former team. Wood finished the night with 21 points but put the game out of reach with his play during the third quarter.
He scored 12 of Dallas' 34 points in the period. The highlight of his night came at the 6:25 mark of the quarter when Wood drilled a triple and had words for Houston's bench.
Wood may have finished the game with 30-plus points if not for the foul troubles that limited him to 21 minutes. He also added four blocks.
"It felt good," Wood said. "Luka and the guys were just trying to get me involved more. They were seeing I wasn’t having the best game and I was in foul trouble. They were making the emphasis on trying to get me the ball. I just did the best I could to take advantage of the opportunity."
Luka Doncic should be the front-runner for MVP:
The Mavericks will not end the season standing at the top of the western conference, but Luka Doncic should be the front runner for league MVP honors.
He followed up his historic 60-point triple-double with 35 points, 13 assists, and 12 rebounds.
Doncic is averaging 42.5 points, 11.5 assists, and 10.0 rebounds in two games against the Rockets. He single-handedly defeated Houston seven days ago by scoring 50 points in the Mavericks' 112-106 victory inside the Toyota Center.
Best Performance:
The first quarter marked the only time the Rockets appeared to have a chance at stealing another victory in Dallas, and Jabari Smith Jr. was leading the charge. He scored 14 of his 16 points during the period and was the answer as to why the Rockets had early success against the Mavericks' zone defense.
Not sure why the Rockets went away from Smith during the next three quarters. After starting the game shooting 6-of-7, Smith only had seven more shot attempts the rest of the night.
Worst performance:
Eric Gordon had his worst performance of the season. He finished with four points on 0-of-7 shooting. The free-throw line marks the only time he scored, but he missed two out of six attempts.
Final Words:
"I think it wasn't that much focus today, and they just played good today. It wasn't bad defensive transition — it was focus. I think that's the point. We had the last two games that was hard. We knew today was going to be a hard game, and we just maybe started the game good, but we just lost our focus." — Alperen Sengun
You can follow Coty M. Davis on Twitter at @CotyDavis_24
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