The Houston Rockets (25-9) lost their fifth game in a row at the Washington Wizards (20-16) despite Chris Paul’s return. Guests from Texas lost 103:121 and ended up without a chance. At Washington this time the bank around Kelly Oubre Jr. is convincing.
At least there was good news for the Rockets that night. Chris Paul returned to the Starting Five after three games of injury break. Oldie Nene got a break for that, PJ Tucker started it. At first both teams didn’t want to drop the throws, but the match was fluid because there were hardly any fouls and other interruptions.
The wizards found a valid option in Otto Porter (11 points in the first quarter) while James Harden was a bit cautious at first and did not take a single throw for more than eight minutes. Since Houston is known to be very thinly positioned due to injuries (Capela, Mbah a Moute), this time the equally not very glorious bank of Washington was able to score a few points. The hosts expanded their lead in the second quarter with double-digit growth and were also able to afford a longer break for John Wall (14) and Bradley Beal (21.9/17 FG).
After the switch, Rockets coach Mike D’ Antoni put Tarik Black on top of a real center, which was obviously good news for the defence. That’s when the first three fell. The deficit melted to up to five points, but Washington had the right answer with Beal. Afterwards it was the bank again, which gave the wizards another boost and extended the lead to 20 points by the middle of the fourth quarter. The decision.
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The reserves were led by the strong Kelly Oubre, who scored 21 points in his career best score (22). The top scorer of the Wizards was Otto Porter with seven converted threesomes (Career High) and a total of 26 points. Among the guests this honour was due to Harden (20,7/14 FG, 4 Assists, 5 Turnover). Chris Paul (8,3/11 FG, 6 Assists) remained mostly pale. Eric Gordon (16) and Gerald Green (18) provided further impact from the bank.
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Bradley Beal. The Shooting Guard was not only dangerous in the offense, but also more than properly dampened the circles of Harden. Even after Switches he didn’t let himself be pushed around by bigger opponents and delivered a strong game on the defensive. In the attack the threesome fell for sure, which opened rooms for him. Among other things, Beal used this for a crashing dark in the third quarter.
Trevor Ariza. Standed together with Ryan Anderson (1/8 threesome) for the weak shooting from outside. Began with a steal and a transformed threesome quite neatly, but then disappeared completely and had no influence on the game. His statline: 7 points (3/11 FG, 1/9 threesomes) and 5 rebounds.
As against Celtics on Christmas Day, Wizards coach Scott Brooks decided to give up a real center for the long haul. Marcin Gortat played only 19 minutes, instead Markieff Morris spent some time on the five. Thus, Kelly Oubre played many minutes and gave the hosts more flexibility, especially in the defense. Especially Harden, who couldn’t bring his drive to the basket as usual, didn’t like that at all.