The Rockets lost 127-131 at home to Philadelphia today, and although Philadelphia did not have Embiid as a superstar, Maxey's super performance did make the Rockets struggle to support, otherwise Philadelphia would have been crushed by the Rockets. The overall state of the Rockets is very brave, even if Dillon and Smith Jr. are unable to play due to injuries, but the Rockets players are united at the beginning, Jalen Green has a hot hand, not only hitting three points, but also breaking through to the end, and the Rockets once led 13-4.
Maxey became a sharp weapon for Philadelphia, and he frequently attacked the Rockets to the basket, as if no one was in a no-man's land, and Philadelphia quickly narrowed the deficit, falling behind 26-32 in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Maxey continued to exert his power, scoring 13 points in just five minutes, but the Rockets were not to be outdone, they controlled the basket, and Ethan frantically scrambled for rebounds, slowing down Philadelphia's offensive rhythm and allowing the Rockets to maintain a seven-point lead. However, at the end of the quarter, Maxey exploded again, scoring 18 points in a single quarter, leading Philadelphia to a deficit of only one point at halftime.
In the second half, Maxey's hand declined, on the contrary, the Rockets' Jalen Green ushered in an outbreak, he and Shen Jing two stars have **, the Rockets played a wave of 15-4 offense, extending the advantage to more than 10 points. By the end of the third quarter, the Rockets were leading 97-90.
In the final quarter, Beverley and Melton doubled the goal, and Harris began to evaluate the Rockets as a weak team in adversity, he hit two three-pointers in a row, and Mo Jr. also threw in a key three-pointer, and Philadelphia took a 109-107 lead in the final six minutes. But at the critical moment, the Rockets did not give the ball to Green, who had the hottest touch, but watched Van Jordan make consecutive mistakes. Perhaps Van Jordan could have scored a perfect score in the first three quarters, but it was almost a disaster on both ends of the floor in the final quarter. On the contrary, Philadelphia began to harvest the game, Maxi broke through and scored, Xiao Moqiang played 3+1, and Philadelphia led by 5 points. When the game was almost out of suspense, Van Jordan gave the ball to Jalen Green. The latter hit a three-point shot and scored a layup to help the Rockets chase one point.
Jalen Green was pinched on the final offense, and Landale made a fatal mistake as he dropped an open teammate in the bottom corner of both sides after trailing by three points and opted for a layup of his own, only to be capped, and the Rockets' hopes of victory were gone. Jalen Green's decision on the final offense was correct, and Landale's pick-and-roll tactics didn't work, didn't create a good shot space for Green, and there was plenty of time. When Green was pinched, Landale could have changed hands and passed to Green again, but his basketball IQ was too low. Udoka also made a mistake, and in the final stages of the game, he shouldn't have passed the ball to Landale, but to Jeff Green, at least the Rockets would have an extra space point.
The Rockets lost to the Rockets today, but were overtaken by the Suns and slipped to 10th place in the West. Next, the Rockets' game against the Warriors has also become difficult, as they need to win the play-in tournament to advance. In this game, on the Philadelphia side, in addition to Maxey, Harris performed well, scoring 22 points, 7 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks, Oubre scored 13 points, Melton contributed 15 points, and Mo Jr. also had 14 points. As for the Rockets, the duo of Jalen Green and Shin Kyung combined to contribute 59 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. Jalen Green finished with 31 points, six rebounds and four assists on 12-of-19 shooting, while Shin Jing shot 12-of-16 from the field for 28 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. While the numbers look good, they are overly individualistic when it matters most.
Judging by the current record of the Clippers and Rockets, the team's decision to abandon Harden this offseason was a misstep. Van Jordan showed signs of inefficiency when he was with the Raptors, shooting not even more than 40 percent, and this year with the Rockets he didn't exceed 40 percent. The Raptors have such a great roster, but they failed to lead Van Jordan to the playoffs and also affected the performance of the team's young players. In the end, the Raptors didn't match the Rockets either**, giving up on Van Jordan and choosing to build the team around Barnes. Now that Van Jordan has joined the Rockets, Jalen Green's status has declined first. If you still choose Harden, not only will the annual salary be cheaper, but you can also better play the advantages of the Rockets lineup.
Harden controls the ball, Jalen Green can score as much as he wants, and Dillon can guard the wing. And our No. 4 Smith and center Shin Kyung also benefited a lot. In the past five games, Shin Kyung has averaged 27 points per game8 points, and 108 rebounds, 46 assists, 16 steals. He has a whopping 58 percent from the field6%, and the three-point shooting rate reached 50%. It makes me wonder how strong Harden would be if he were to work with him. It can really only be said that Jalen Green was too young and was fooled by George and said something double-edged. As a result, George and Harden's cooperation is really tacit. In fact, Harden's return to Jalen Green is the real beneficiary of both sides, but he himself does not realize it. If you look at Maxey and Harden working together for a year and a half, their organizational skills have improved a lot.