ATLANTA — Young players tend to make mistakes. That’s typically how it goes in the NBA.
Since the beginning of training camp, head coach Stephen Silas has talked about the need to clean up a lot of things from the previous season. The Rockets coughed up the ball a whopping 16.5 times a game, dead last in the league. Consistently giving your opponent the ball eventually leads to larger deficits, which also explains how Houston gave up 21.2 points per game off said turnovers — also last in the NBA.
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Houston finished the preseason with a 3-1 record but as high as the vibrations were, the early signs were there as well, with an eye-popping 20.3 turnovers a night — only slightly better than the Brooklyn Nets. You could point to several factors that contributed to this. The team implemented new things into their offense. Working out chemistry kinks. Players in and out of the lineup. Youth. The list goes on and on.
Most of this is to be expected. The Rockets are still a rebuilding team and are working toward their everyday goal of becoming smarter, better and more efficient basketball players. Yes, Jalen Green is electric. Yes, Kevin Porter Jr. is a smooth lefty with a soft touch and hard finish. Jabari Smith is the connective tissue this new body needs as they heal past wounds. But again, young players tend to make mistakes.
This was on display opening night as the Rockets fell to the Hawks 117-107 — a hard, valiant effort by the young players but simply not good enough to get past a veteran Hawks team expecting to make a deep postseason run. Houston gave up the ball 16 times compared to nine by Atlanta, resulting in 28 points off their mistakes.
“There were multiple times where I sat down and my assistants (said) ‘Man, we’re just so young.’” Silas said. “We made some uncharacteristic turnovers that led to 28 points for them. Also, this is our fifth game together so we were disjointed a little bit. But I loved our fight, competitiveness. That pick-and-roll defense is the hardest in the league and we hung in there with that. It was the transition points that hurt us the most. I’m encouraged, even though we lost.”
When Silas leads Thursday’s film session, he should be able to quickly diagnose what went wrong. It had been nearly three weeks since the rest of the starters last played with Smith. The one-game sample size they had was against a bad Spurs team that didn’t really reveal much, although Smith played excellently in that exhibition. Smith projects to be an important piece of this Rockets offense, so having some more games together prior to facing Atlanta would have helped. But this was also the first regular season game with Bruno Fernando as the opening night starter. Alperen Sengun came off the bench and there had to be adjustments made in execution and setup.
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Credit must also be given to Atlanta’s defense which took advantage of Houston’s relative inexperience on a routine basis, forcing them into bad habits and sloppiness at times. The Hawks did their best to swarm Green and Porter, trying to make things difficult and forcing others to make things happen. Silas admitted after the game that their 16 turnovers were a combination of good Hawks defense and disjointed Rockets offense.
There is also the underlying pressure. Atlanta ran a myriad of pick-and-rolls led by Trae Young and Dejounte Murray (who finished with 24 combined assists to just three turnovers), knowing Houston isn’t trying to switch everything anymore and wants to keep matchups as originally planned, with their bigs hanging back in drop coverage. They knew it was coming but it didn’t matter. It was merciless from Atlanta.
“It was hard,” Porter said. “You gotta respect Trae. He got that floater and 3s that are lethal and those are his best shots so we wanted to take that away and make him finish. He finished tonight.”
There were a series of blows by the Hawks where the Rockets would try to hurry down the floor and make something happen to quell momentum or silence the crowd momentarily, but more often than not, the ensuing possession didn’t pan out that way.
“I would have to watch the film but we did have some sloppy plays,” Silas said. “Some of it was sloppy and some stuff we can clean up. Other times they pressured us into bad decisions. We’ll watch it, get better and make sure our spacing is good enough to where when we get into those positions, we know where the outlet is.”
Still, Houston’s first regular-season game wasn’t for naught. Porter looks as controlled as ever at the point of attack as a point guard, finishing with a tidy 21 points, seven assists, seven rebounds and two steals. The Rockets’ game plan was simple: put Trae Young and John Collins/Clint Capela/Onyeka Okongwu in pick-and-roll action and attempt to expose them, whether it’s from their explosion causing Atlanta’s defenders to chase or scramble.
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But Porter could have easily finished with double digits in assists. He made several crisp plays and found teammates in their preferred shooting pockets but shots didn’t fall down. It happens. Houston missed 26 of their 35 3-point looks, a low number of attempts according to Silas of which he wants more. Offensively, however, Porter did a solid job finding sweet spots within Atlanta’s gaps, particularly between the top of the free throw circle and free throw line.
“I’m comfortable,” Porter said. “I’ve been comfortable for some time. As games go on, I’ll get more and more in tune with my guys and the game’s going to continue to slow down for me.”
Smith might have missed eight of his 11 3s and 11 of his 17 shots but he was constantly looked for since has a good idea of what shots will be available for him within the offense. Smith finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, not a bad start to his NBA career. Silas will likely be pleased with the sheer number of attempts Smith was able to get up and how he’ll be able to punish defenses with his ability to pick-and-pop. The aggressiveness early on is a good sign that confidence shouldn’t be an issue like it might have been during summer league.
“Oh my god, I got so many looks,” Smith said. “I just didn’t knock them down, but that’s gonna come. With me being a shooter, that’s not my first time missing shots. I’m not tripping at all. Seeing those open shots and seeing where they’re coming from, it makes the game easier when I got guards who can make that pass and believe in me.”
Parting shots
• I liked the energy Fernando brought on both ends of the floor in his first start. He finished with seven points, nine rebounds and a shocking seven assists in 25 minutes but he focused on the simple aspects of the game. Screening to free up his guards. Rolling hard to the rim. Attacking the boards. Rotating and trying to protect the rim. Fernando made mistakes tonight as well but from an effort standpoint, he did a solid job.
• I also really liked Sengun with the second unit. Injuries to players like Jae’Sean Tate and Daishen Nix hurt their playmaking some (Silas used Gordon as an emergency point guard with the bench) but the 20-year-old bounced back from a dull first half and ended up with 15 points and nine rebounds. He had a handful of turnovers that were a part of Houston being disjointed but overall, but there’s value in Sengun with that unit. Silas is able to run more things offensively through him at his own pace, something that might not be possible playing with the starters. It’s better to pair Sengun with players like K.J. Martin, Tari Eason and Tate, options who can move well without the ball, cut adequately and keep defenses paying attention.
• Silas tied Green and Porter’s minutes together for the most part on Wednesday, but I wonder if he’ll end up staggering them more during the course of games. The thinking is to have at least one offensive option on the floor at all times — but it might even make sense to stagger all three of Porter, Green and Eric Gordon for even more scoring and playmaking security. Houston didn’t look as polished with Gordon out by himself with non-ball dominant players surrounding him.
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“I might have to stagger them a little bit more so that we can make sure we have a scoring punch at all times,” Silas said. “With (Sengun) there it makes it easier to score with the second unit so you don’t have to stagger those guys quite as much. So we’ll see as we go.”
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(Photo of Trae Young and Jalen Green: Dale Zanine/USA Today)
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