It has taken fewer than three weeks for the rockets to switch from sweethearts from the Western conference to experience a catastrophic collapse that makes them tumble down.
With his road loss on 116-105 to Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Rockets’ ski reached six matches. In this range, Houston went from keeping the second seed in the west to falling behind Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets and in a draw with – and technical percentages behind – Los Angeles Lakers for the fourth seed and HomeCourt advantage in advantage first round of the NBA Posteason.
Rockets will host Toronto Raptors on Sunday in desperate need of a win. The positive momentum Houston, which was generated with three wins in a row across Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics at the end of last month has disappeared in the midst of several injuries that have contributed to the attack of losses. Rockets initially survived the loss of Jabari Smith Jr. (hand), but the combination of the alperen Sengun (calf) and Fred Vanvleet (ankle) also proved to be weakening.
Sengun missed the first three games in ski and despite the average of 23.3 points and 12.7 returns since his return to the starting lineup has not been able to hinder the tide for the first time. Vanvleet missed his fourth game in a row on Saturday and Rocket’s ball safety has suffered in his absence. Amen Thompson has undertaken 15 sales, provided that some of the checks on crimes in these four matches.
Thompson was named Western Conference Defensive Player of the Month for January. But his workload and others have increased with rashes of injuries.
“The injuries have hit us more than guys are tired,” said rocket coach Ime Udoka. “Everyone will be tired, both teams on the floor; it’s that time of year.
“You miss Alpi for the three games and obviously peace is probably our most important player as far as getting us organized and getting everyone into their spaces and calming everything when things go wrong a bit. It would be more (by a factor) than actual guys on court because everyone knows it. ”
Raptors opened a three-game road trip with a loss of 121-109 to Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, their fourth loss in five matches after a season best five-game winning line.
With RJ Barrett (concussion), Jakob Poeltl (HIP) and Brandon Ingram (Ankel) – acquired from New Orleans Pelicans at the Trade Deadline – all inaccessible to the thunder, Raptors contained four beginners (Jamison Battle, Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead and Ja’kobe ) and the second year guard GRADY Dick in their 10-man rotation. It leaves Raptors, now 20 matches below .500, is strongly leaning on player development in the short term.
“It’s really the focus on many young guys who are now getting extended minutes,” said Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic. “There are small things that we strive for. There are many small details that we try to work with just like focusing on our improvement.
“It really comes practically that we play against some really good teams because it will help us play extremely hard and use these things.”
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