Rockets: Jalen Green Continues to Thrive in Recent Hot Stretch

After the Houston Rockets 125-103 win over the Portland Trailblazers, the team moved their record to 28-13 at the mid-way mark of the regular season. They are second in Western Conference which comes as a surprise to most around the NBA.

A big reason for the Rockets great start to the season has been the play of Jalen Green. The fourth-year guard is having the best overall season of his career as he and Alperen Sengun are trying to lead Houston to the playoffs for the first time in their careers.

Many narratives have been put out about Green. He only shows up at the end of the season when games don't matter, he only shows up in meaningless games in March, and the latest one, he can only excel when certain players are either on the court or not in the lineup with him.

Green has shattered all of those narratives, especially the last one. For most of their time together, many believed him and Sengun could not thrive together. Critics believed for Green to take that next step, he needed a more wide-open game

They said Sengun being in the post clogged up the lane for Sengun and prohibited him from getting out on the break. It was also noted that Green could not succeed with Fred VanVleet as he controlled the ball too often, hindering the shooting guard's scoring.

So far this season, Green has proved all those narratives wrong, as he has thrived no matter who is on the court. Much talk has been about Green's play so far in January, which has been great, but his excellent play started in late November.

That is almost two months of elite basketball for Green in which he has played all of it with Sengun on the court and all but two with VanVleet. Green even dispelled the latest talking point that his excellent play has been due to Amen Thompson, as he scored 26 efficient points in the Rocket's win over the Blazers, in which Thompson did not play.

Green has shown that any preconceived notion about him this season needs to be changed as he continues to show precisely why the Rockets drafted him second overall and why they wanted him to be the heir apparent to James Harden.

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