The Rockets Know What Beat Them in Dallas: 28 Fast-Break Points, and a Defense Jogging Back
Houston's first loss came with a diagnosis from its own locker room - transition defense, 28 to 10 - and less than 24 hours to fix it before Oklahoma City visits Toyota Center tonight.
HOUSTON - The Rockets' five-game winning streak masked it, and Dallas exposed it in one night. Houston lost its first game of the season on Friday, 116-111 to the Mavericks in an Emirates NBA Cup game, and the number the team kept repeating afterward was 28 - the fast-break points Dallas scored, against 10 for Houston, Rockets Wire reported.
'Transition,' head coach Ime Udoka said, naming the weakness the winning streak had hidden. 'They dominated that tonight, 28 to 10. Not necessarily off a ton of turnovers, but playing fast off makes. Too many times, those guys got their opportunities when everyone was jogging back and not getting set.' The season's numbers say the problem is real but narrow: Houston ranks ninth in transition defense and 12th in overall defense while leading the entire league in offensive rating.
The fourth quarter told it plainly. Dallas scored 72 points in the second half and 40 in the fourth, with Kyrie Irving (35 points) and Cooper Flagg (33) combining for 27 of those 40 and 68 for the night. 'Defensively, I don't think we had control throughout the whole game,' Fred VanVleet said. 'Our offense was unbalanced, so they were able to run out on us. They just played faster with more pace and more force.'
The repair window is one day. The Oklahoma City Thunder (4-1) visit Toyota Center tonight at 7:30 p.m. Central to open a three-game Rockets homestand, on Space City Home Network and NBA TV - which is exactly how Kevin Durant framed it: 'It is good when you take an L and quickly bounce back and try to right the wrongs the next night. That is the great part about the NBA.' Tonight will show whether the wrong was a lesson or a habit.
