NBA Restart Day 2: Rockets shake off rust to defeat high-powered Mavs

Recapping day 2 of the NBA’s restart

The NBA followed up on Thursday night’s doubleheader with a Friday afternoon marathon which featured six games. Let’s bounce around with some observations from this action-packed day.

Wizards-Suns recap

The final score doesn’t reflect how over-matched Washington was in this one. Pretty much their only source of consistent offense was from Ish Smith (in transition or by getting to his spot in the mid-range). Jerome Robinson was the lone bright spot for the Washington Wizards, as he finally showed some of the shooting prowess (4-6 on 3PT) that got him drafted 13th overall.

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For the Phoenix Suns, whenever they weren’t traffic-coning Thomas Bryant for layups and dunks in the pick-and-roll, they had a pretty lethal fallback option in Devin Booker. He lit up everyone who tried guarding him, rising for silky jumpers or driving the baseline.

An interesting set that they continued to run was a tight curl around a screen at the elbow for him, where he’d receive the ball on the move with shooters at each corner.

This loss puts Washington’s hopes of forcing a play-in that much dimmer, and Sunday’s contest with the Nets is effectively an elimination game given the rest of their schedule. Today’s affair was a poor showing for all of their young players, with the exception of Robinson and perhaps Troy Brown Jr. (don’t be fooled by Rui Hachimura’s point total).

This was a solid start for the Suns, though they still have their work cut out for them. Deandre Ayton was used primarily as an off-ball screen-setter and roll-man on offense, and he also attempted three shots from behind the arc (hitting two of them). It will be very fascinating to see how his role shapes out for this team moving forward.

Another player that I will be watching is Mikal Bridges, who had an under-the-radar alarming shooting regression this season. He went 1-5 today from deep, all on wide-open looks. Bridges may be the apple of much of NBA Twitter’s eye, but I am way lower on him.

Grizzlies-Blazers recap

This was a topsy-turvy match that saw the Portland Trail Blazers seize control with a double-digit in the second quarter, only for Memphis to take commanding leads of their own in the third/fourth periods. The game eventually went into overtime, where it was all Portland.

In the first half, the Blazers were quite impressive on the offensive end. Despite staying big (by playing two of Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins, and Hassan Whiteside together), their star backcourt torched the Grizzlies in the pick-and-roll, and their role players like Mario Hezonja and Gary Trent Jr. hit spot-up looks. The newly-returned Nurkic/Collins frontcourt looked spry and showed intriguing flashes of high-low action.

Memphis, on the other hand, was completely out of sorts. Ja Morant was being corralled, and the rest of the team looked a bit flustered with turnovers and out-of-control drives. The Blazers’ size was giving them major problems at the basket as well. Jaren Jackson Jr. (6-15 3PT, 15 attempts!!!) may have been a human torch, but he was having a rough go of it defensively. The charity stripe was the only thing that kept the Grizzlies in the game, as they made a whopping 23 free throws (out of 30 attempts) in the first half alone.

The game changed early in the third quarter when Jonas Valanciunas recorded his fourth foul, forcing Memphis to put more speed out there with a Brandon Clarke/Jackson Jr. front-line. They started trapping McCollum and Lillard higher out on the floor, and Portland wilted a bit under this pressure. This pairing was a +13 in 30 minutes of play. Jackson Jr. showed glimpses of the two-way monster we foresaw in him coming out of the 2018 Draft, and Clarke’s finishing in the paint was stellar as usual.

Portland regained a bit of momentum once Ja and Jaren exited the game, but they still trailed 112-103 with six minutes remaining. So how did they end up with the victory? I believe they won it more than Memphis lost it, even though the Grizzlies made a few crucial mistakes down the stretch. The Grizzlies settled for some quick, early shots that weren’t actually in rhythm – Dillion Brooks in particular was a major culprit for this. There were also a few careless fouls in there, including a technical foul by Clarke after throwing down an alley-oop.

What ultimately won Portland the game, however, was Terry Stotts’ decision to break out the four-out lineup of Lillard/McCollum/Trent/Anthony with Collins at the center position with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. This lineup scored a sweltering 20 points on 10 possessions in the fourth/OT, and the rest was history. Dame had ample space to get to the paint, and C.J. harkened back to last year’s playoffs with pull-up daggers. Memphis’ weak-side defenders just had too much real estate to try to cover. We even got a few clutch Melo buckets.

These first two days of NBA action couldn’t have gone any better for Portland: losses by New Orleans and Sacramento, and a critical victory here. I was a Portland skeptic coming into this, but the way Nurkic and the role players looked has me reconsidering their chances of forcing the play-in. And less Hassan Whiteside is always a good thing.

Memphis is still in the driver’s seat. If I were them, I wouldn’t start to sweat just yet, unless they lose on Sunday to San Antonio. Although Ja Morant struggled efficiency-wise, I would have liked to see them put the ball in his hands a bit more in the half-court. The bench guys showed tons of energy (like they have all year), and the Clarke-Jackson frontcourt was easily the highlight of the day for them.

Rockets-Mavericks recap

What an offensive exhibition this was to wrap up our Friday slate. Yes, the defense on both sides was quite porous, but this game served as a reminder as to why Dallas and Houston were No. 1 and No. 2 in the league on offense before the season halted.

Dallas was in control of this one from the moment James Harden was subbed out in the first quarter, up until the very end of regulation – leading by between four and 12 for most of it. It started with Luka Doncic, who got into the lane pretty much at will.

Dallas was targeting Harden here, but Luka was still beating whoever was matched up with him one-on-one. While there’s only so much help defense can do on straight blow-bys, Houston’s rotations were not crisp at all. They seemed to struggle with finding the right balance of helping early and staying attached to shooters. The attentiveness and cohesion weren’t there, either.

It may be counter-intuitive, but Houston’s small-ball defense is weaker against perimeter-oriented teams, largely because their lack of length makes it harder to recover and clean up mistakes on the back-end. This is why I would much rather be in the Lakers side of the playoff bracket than the Clippers side if I were them. Dallas also demonstrated why they lit up the league all season; it wasn’t just Luka.

Everyone can shoot or pass, the ball rarely sticks, and the floor is always spaced. It really is Rick Carlisle’s flow offense at its best. Part of this offensive explosion (119 points through 3 quarters) was undoubtedly unsustainable, as the non-Luka Mavs shot a preposterous 20 for 40 on 3’s. Trey Burke had an out-of-body experience.

Luckily for Houston, they were able to keep up with this Dallas onslaught, thanks to a brilliant offensive showing themselves. Harden in the first quarter channeled his November/December form, and when he’s on that level there isn’t much that defenses can do. He was even playing more decisively than normal; pushing in transition and not dribbling the shot-clock down.

Dallas tried the old double-team strategy in the second quarter, but the Rockets carved them up with Russell Westbrook rim barrages and open 3’s in the 4-on-3 situations. Dallas just doesn’t have the type of athletes to make offenses uncomfortable – forcing only nine turnovers total the entire game.

The Rockets’ amped the defense late in the game (Robert Covington, in particular, was great as a help-defender, as usual), and the Mavericks season trend of collapsing in crunch-time continued. After a Maxi Kleber corner-3 gave them a 138-131 lead with 45 seconds left, Harden responded immediately with a ridiculous step-back 3. Houston then cut the lead to two, but with just six seconds left, Dallas was firmly in control.

Seth Curry (a career 83.7% foul shooter) then missed a free-throw, giving Houston one last opportunity. Dallas seemingly didn’t give them that chance, intentionally fouling Harden with just 4 seconds left. This strategy came back to bite them, as Harden missed the second one, and Robert Covington came with the incredible tip-in to knot it at 139.

The Rockets out-played Dallas in overtime, but this sequence was where the game was lost. This was another tough one to swallow for the Mavericks in a season where they have the largest disparity between their point differential and their win-loss record in the NBA. In other words, they “should” have about five more wins right now if they performed normally in the clutch. This loss makes it that much more likely that they’ll wind up with the seven-seed, and a date with the Clippers in the first round – the doomsday scenario for them match-up wise.

For Houston, this was a reminder of just how dominant a fresh and rested James Harden is. I will be looking to see if they can bounce back defensively moving forward, but at least they woke up late in the game. I believe that they are the biggest threat in the Western Conference to the two LA teams.