The Houston Rockets played probably their worst protective game of the season on Friday in permitting 149 points versus the Dallas Mavericks, and a challenger just as threatening loomed on Sunday. Fortunately, the Rockets managed to find out their protective problems. They removed the Milwaukee Bucks, 119-116, behind 22 forced turnovers and 48 minutes of perfectly carried out switching. The Bucks shot just 9-of-35 from behind the arc in the game thanks to Houstons unbelievable defense..
The Bucks lost the game in spite of finishing with 29 more rebounds than the Rockets. Their frontcourt trio of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton scored 86 points and grabbed 42 rebounds, but nobody else might offer the Bucks much of anything.
The Bucks will now have to wait a couple of days to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Rockets move up to No. 4 out West, only a game behind the No. 3 Nuggets. The Bucks were arguably their worst possible matchup, however it didnt matter.
Here are the significant takeaways from tonights Houston win..
Houston played championship-caliber defense.
The issue for Houston on Friday wasnt plan or lineup. It was effort and conditioning. The Rockets played lazy defense and the Mavericks penalized them for it. The distinction in effort and energy was night and day on Sunday. The Rockets flew around the court, deflecting passes left and right, removing unwary ball-handlers at a rate only possible without a center on the flooring, and switching so effectively that the Bucks practically never ever generated open 3-pointers for their function gamers..
The Rockets dont have to have the No. 1 defense in basketball to win the champion. Their defense exists to prevent 3-pointers and produce turnovers.
The Bucks didnt have to go small.
The Rockets most likely presumed that their little lineups would require the Bucks to desert whats worked for them all year long. The Bucks won the minutes Brook Lopez played by 6 points and lost the rest of the video game by 10. That is a big win for Milwaukee in the grand scheme of things.
Lopez remaining playable makes sure that the Bucks will win the rebounding fight in every series they play, and their elite rim-protection will require opposing teams into even worse shots. He has been their third-best gamer all season, and Houstons hope in playing so little is that teams like the Bucks have to take valuable gamers off of the flooring to match them. Tonight, they lost on that front. The Bucks were comfortable playing their best huge man..
Houston has plenty of space to climb.
Midway through their win over Dallas on Friday, it looked like the Rockets might move as far as No. 7 in the Western Conference. They track the Denver Nuggets by just a single video game in the standings, and while the 2 will not fulfill in a seeding game, the Nuggets are presently compromised from a depth viewpoint.
The question for Houston is, would they rather be No. 3, or No. 4? That would likewise suggest getting the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round, a worse matchup for them than the No. 1 Lakers. Houston has put itself in a position to get the seed that it desires in the playoffs.
The Bucks lost the video game despite ending up with 29 more rebounds than the Rockets. The Bucks will now have to wait a couple of days to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Rockets most likely presumed that their small lineups would require the Bucks to desert whats worked for them all year long. The Bucks won the minutes Brook Lopez played by six points and lost the rest of the video game by 10. He has been their third-best gamer all season, and Houstons hope in playing so little is that groups like the Bucks have to take valuable gamers off of the floor to match them.
