Enjoy the New Year
Today, the Rockets challenge the Pacers away, Eason and Van Jordan are out due to injury, and the Pacers start: Haliburton, Nembhard, Nesmith, Siakam, Turner! Rockets starters: Thompson, Jalen Green, Dillon, Jabari Smith, Shin Kyung.
At the beginning of the first quarter, Smith Jr. scored five points in a row, and the Pacers quickly tied it, but Dillon hit two three-pointers from the outside, and the Rockets led by six points at 11-5, and the Pacers immediately called a timeout. After this timeout, the Pacers focused on Turner and Siakam, playing more inside, and the two teams launched a battle against each other, and the score went up alternately. Jalen Green first made a breakthrough layup, and then made a 3+1 play, but the Pacers' three-point shot was very accurate, Holiday made a mistake on offense after coming up, and the defense was eaten by Sika, Udoka was very dissatisfied and shouted a timeout. Back to the game, the White Devils dared to fight, scoring 5 points in a row, plus an assist Jalen Green for a dunk, but the Pacers' side felt too accurate, playing a wave of 7-2, and the Rockets trailed by 2 points at 39-41 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the two sides rotated the lineup, and the Rockets hit three three-pointers in a row, directly blasting out a wave of 9-0 mini-climax to overtake 7 points, and the Pacers took a timeout. Back to the game, the old brother-in-law played a high difficulty 2+1 again. But McConnell scored four straight points to stop the bleeding, but the White Devils dunked and Smith hit a mid-range shot to give the Rockets a double-digit lead for the first time. But the Rockets' defense was slackening again, and Udoka was dissatisfied, called a timeout, and then switched back to the main team. Shin Kyung and Jalen Green made contributions on offense and defense, but Siakam was in hot form, Turner made another foul free throw, the Rockets attacked the Pacers on another wave of 7-0, Green hit a layup, and Dillon assisted Smith for a dunk to stabilize the situation. After Brother Long made a foul, the White Devils also came back, and the two sides still did not defend, and the Rockets opened up the difference again, and the Pacers trailed by 7 points at halftime 68-75.
In the second half, the Rockets had a high offensive success rate in the third quarter, but Turner scored five points in a row. Shen Jing hit the inside line, Smith rebounded in the front court and made foul free throws, and the point difference came to double digits again, Hield immediately responded with three points, Sika scored 4 points in a row, and the Pacers chased a 7-0 small surge to only 3 points and stopped the opponent. After the timeout, the two sides were attacking and not defending, Dillon made a basket and made a three-point free throw to score 7 points in a row to help the Rockets lead to 8 points, but Haliburton and Siakam hit three points in a row, Udoka replaced Smith with the White Devils, and Haliburton made a layup to stop the opponent again. Amen lost all the dribbles himself, Hield completed the three-point lead, and McConnell scored five straight points at the end of the third quarter to give the Pacers a seven-point lead at 106-99 heading into the fourth quarter.
Early in the final quarter, the Pacers grabbed Holiday and scored four straight points to take a double-digit lead. Tate hit a three-point shot in the bottom corner to stop the bleeding, Amen dunked under the basket but missed two free throws, and the Pacers led by 14 points on the outside three-pointer line, setting the tone for the game in one fell swoop. After the timeout, Jalen Green scored five points in a row, and Amen made two consecutive layups to chase seven points. Jalen Green struggled to support himself, but the Rockets defense was just watching. However, at the critical moment, Green and Amen refused to give up, Amen continued to rebound and defend in the frontcourt, Green continued to hit three points, and at the last moment, Udoka went to Holiday again and was beaten by Haliburton to kill the game.
In the end, the Rockets lost to the Pacers 129-132 away and avoided 2 consecutive defeats, let's take a look at the specific performance of the players!
Jalen Green didn't play well against the Timberwolves last time, and today he quickly hit the bottom. He scored 6 points in the first quarter, including a 3+1, and in the first half, Green shot 5-of-9, 1-of-2 three-pointers, and 3-of-3 free throws, and got 14 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.
After he scored four points in the third quarter, Udoka replaced him. After he came back in the final quarter, he carried the team's offense and scored 12 points alone, but it fell short.
In the game, he played 33 minutes, shooting 12-of-20, 3-of-5 three-pointers, and 3-of-4 free throws, scoring a game-high 30 points, plus 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals.
In addition to Jalen Green, the Rockets' No. 4 pick Amen Thompson performed well-rounded on both offensive and defensive ends, rebounding and defending in the final quarter to help the team retain suspense.
In this game, Amen played 33 minutes, shooting 6 of 13, 0 of 2 three-pointers, 1 of 4 free throws, and got a double-double of 13 points, 13 rebounds (7 frontcourt rebounds), 6 assists and 3 blocks.
Siakam can be considered happy today. In the first half, he shot 6-of-7 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point range to finish with 14 points, two rebounds and two assists.
In the second half, he played 35 minutes, shooting 11-of-16 from the field, 4-of-6 from three-point range, and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line, contributing 29 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.