The Rockets 3-Point Shooting Has Been an Issue All of 2026 Especially the Last 5 Games

The Houston Rockets entered San Antonio to face one of the NBA's best. After losing two of three previous matchups to their I-10 rival, they aimed to even the season series in the regular-season finale.

The Rockets have been up and down over the past four games, entering Sunday night's showdown with a 2-2 record. They had a strong win over the Orlando Magic, but also one of their most disappointing losses of the season against the Golden State Warriors, who were missing multiple players, including Steph Curry.

One of the biggest reasons for their loss to the Miami Heat was their overall shooting, specifically from 3-point range: they shot just 25 percent, making only 9 3-pointers. The number of 3-pointers made isn't exactly a surprise, considering the Rockets are one of the lowest-volume 3-point teams in the league, but shooting under 30 percent on low volume is a major problem.

Even in the win over the Portland Trailblazers, the Rockets only made five 3-pointers and shot an abysmal 26.3 percent in a game that shouldn't have been as close as it was, as the Rockets won 106-99 over another short-handed team.

Making five 3-pointers against the Trail Blazers is one thing, but shooting a low volume and a low percentage against a Spurs-caliber team is a recipe for disaster. That is exactly what happened Sunday night as the Spurs won the 3-point battle by a wide margin and continued the Rockets' downward spiral from the arch.

The Rockets Continue to Lose the 3-Point Battle Most Nights

In Sunday night's Spurs 25-point destruction of the Rockets, the Spurs won the 3-point battle 21-8, a 39-point margin. As mentioned earlier, the Rockets have been toward the bottom of the league in 3-point attempts most of the season, but earlier in the season, they were making a high percentage of those shots.

Well, that hasn't been the case for most of 2026, especially in the last five games. Over the Rockets' last five games, where they are 2-3, they rank 26th at 31.7 percent from downtown in those five games, and when you are not a team with multiple one-on-one players shooting a low percentage from 3-point range, it causes major issues for your offense.

The Rockets are still one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, but as they learned last season, you need a high-functioning offense, especially from 3-point range, in today's NBA if you want to be a championship contender, and lately that hasn't been the Rockets.