Rockets' Motionless Offense Deemed Worrisome

The Houston Rockets' offense has been a bit of a mystery this season. On the one hand, they rank fifth in offensive efficiency. Yet and still, at times, their offense looks stagnant.

They rely on offensive rebounds to give them higher percentage putback buckets, either by way of wide open kick out threes or second-chance buckets at or near the rim.

But even that's been happening less frequently, without Steven Adams -- easily the game's best offensive rebounder this season.

(And during his era).

We saw it during Houston's game against the LA Clippers on Wednesday night -- the Rockets' second night of a home-and-home back-to-back.

Against the same opponent.

Houston's offense got stale in the second half, prompting Kevin Durant to score seven straight in the fourth quarter to tie the game.

Even though Houston was previously up by 15 points. The Rockets ultimately lost.

Oftentimes, the Rockets rely on Durant to bail them out of bad offensive possessions, as he's forced to hit a shot with an insanely high degree of difficulty (with defenders draped all over him or double teams, in many cases).

The Rockets' lack of a table-setting point guard rears its ugly head in these situations.

All told, Houston's offensive limitations has drawn the attention of Brian Windhorst -- ESPN's long-time NBA insider.

"The offense did not get me any more confident. Because you know they are a top-five offensive team. It's kind of crazy when you watch them play and say, 'man they're a top-five offense.'

But when they get into clutch time, they're bottom-ten.

And so I'm watching them and there's whole possessions where the ball is not moving.

Some baskets off of offensive rebounds and turnovers, otherwise I'm a little worried about them."

It's not a secret that the ball oftentimes sticks for the Rockets offensively.

They rank bottom-eight in passes made per game and bottom-six in points created by assists.

And they don't have a three-point heavy offensive attack.

Far from it.

These Rockets take just 30.5 long-range attempts per game, which ranks 29th.

Second to last.

There's some encouragement on that front, however, as Houston has shown a recent positive trend in getting their long-range shots up.

Houston took 43 threes against the Oklahoma City Thunder and 36 threes against the Clippers, in their final game before the All-Star break.

That would help the offense overcome their limitations, but the point guard need may not get addressed, outside of Fred VanVleet making a miraculously speedy return from his torn ACL.