Houston’s Bench Squad Lets the Team Down

Each loss of the Houston Rockets' six-game losing streak featured a different reason for their defeat. They've shown their limitations in several ways, melting down in the clutch with poor shot-making or turnovers. Their most recent defeat to the Dallas Mavericks featured a faux comeback near the end before having their hopes dashed by the Mavericks' reserves. The bench squad for Dallas stole the show, especially after Anthony Davis's injury. It also exposed the shortcomings of Houston's bench in one of its worst outings of the season.

Houston's starters provided most of the spark and were why the Rockets ever reached striking distance. Alperen Sengun bounced back from a tough first half to finish with 30 points and eight rebounds. Jalen Green was the next-leading scorer with 24 points and six assists, and Amen Thompson added 20 points seven rebounds and five assists.

Those numbers from the team's big three are generally enough to win games, especially against a team that lost Anthony Davis to injury. However, Houston got an uncharacteristically poor performance from the bench players.

Several of Houston's reserves shot a higher volume of shots than usual, but their efficiency was abysmal.

Cam Whitmore had the highest total points off the bench, scoring just seven points. However, five of his points came from the free-throw line, and he made just one of his eight attempts from the field. None of the other reserves had much better performances either,

Reed Shepard, Steven Adams, and Aaron Holiday all hit just one of their field goal attempts. However, Shepard took six shots, Holiday took three shots, and Adams took nine shots. Jae'Sean Tate also got some run off the bench, but he missed both of his shot attempts in the game.

Their combined shooting percentage from the bench wasn't enough to beat most teams in the NBA. It didn't help that the Mavericks had significant contributions from their reserves.

Max Christie may have been the hero for Dallas against the Rockets. He finished with the second-highest point total, including a clutch three in the game's waning moments. Dallas also got 16 points from Naji Marshall and 10 from Spencer Dinwiddie as the Mavericks' bench carried much of the heavy lifting after Anthony Davis left the game.

The Mavericks bench combined for 53 points, a drastic difference from Houston's 14 bench points.

The Rockets are suffering from a few impact injuries to Jabari Smith Jr. and Fred VanVleet which will heavily impact bench minutes on their return. Whether Smith goes to the bench for the first time in his career, or if Thompson returns to the bench, the reserves will get a drastic boost in the lineup once the starters come out of the game.

Houston's starters can put the team in positions to win, especially when they have strong performances like they did against Dallas. They need more contributions from the reserve lineup to compete against teams with quality depth on their bench.

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