Rob Dover

Eric Collins was calling the #Heat-#Rockets game on Prime, so you can listen to him when you get to that.

Durant ended up cross-matched with Banchero a few times in this game and really struggled to contain him. Fortunately there aren't a ton of players in the West of his archetype (face-up tweener forwards). Maybe Randle on the Wolves, although he's more of a back-to-the-basket guy.

Speaking of Jabari one thing I've been very impressed with him recently has been his play on the fast break. He's always there, and he finishes plays consistently. Given how often the #Rockets seem to screw up transition opportunities, some competence there is very welcome!

Both Tari and Jabari went down in the fourth quarter, which was concerning. Having those guys healthy come playoff time is going to be critical. I think for Eason it was just cramp - hopefully Smith's ankle isn't too seriously hurt.

So once the #Rockets got back into the game, they could ride KD on offense and choke off a lot of the #Magic's offense, ultimately riding that to a win. Definitely feels like a good win given the hole they were in and the fact they were on a b2b!

I like to think of NBA defenses as on a continuum in terms of whether they look to take away 3s or pack the paint. The #Rockets are definitely more of a pack the paint kind of team. And because Bane is the #Magic's only good outside shooter, they were vulnerable to that approach.

It's amazing what a bit of confidence does to Reed's game. Suddenly he couldn't miss and the lead just evaporated! And of course once the threes were falling he was able to leverage that to get into the paint too. His willingness to keep the dribble alive is just night and day from last year!

What did get them back in the game was a combination of Reed Sheppard turning into a flamethrower and the #Rockets starting to generate some turnovers. The #Magic initially played good defense on Reed, but as the plays got more helter-skelter he started to get loose. And started bombing!

But as the game went on KD figured out what he needed to do, and then suddenly it was raining middies. There's only so many times you can put Mo Wagner on an island with him before he's going to start cooking! But by then the #Rockets were down big and middies didn't seem enough to get them back.

It was interesting to see how the #Magic were defending KD and Sengun. They had a go at just switching any action between those two and not sending help. In the first half it worked well - it made the threes harder to come by and initially both struggled to score in isolation.

#Rockets had a go at their switchy lineup (Amen-DFS-Tari-KD-Jabari), but it didn't work because they weren't able to stay in front, and the rim protection wasn't really there to cover up the miscues. I think it needs Jabari and KD to be dialled in on the rotations and they weren't in this one.

It did highlight something I'm a little nervous about for the #Rockets, which is that for all that they're good on the offensive glass, I think they are vulnerable to teams giving them a dose of their own medicine. #Magic's length and tendency to miss threes with long rebounds really hurt them here.

The first half was a lesson in three point variance. #Rockets went 1-11 and looked like a team on a back-to-back. Meanwhile Bane was unconscious from three and the #Magic were getting all the boards. To be honest only being down about 12 at half was a pretty good outcome all things considered!

Just finished watching a aery enjoyable comeback win for the #Rockets over the #Magic (yes, I know it's a day old now!). A few thoughts in a thread: 🧵

#NBASky

I didn't have time to watch the #Rockets-#Jazz game and do my usual thread, but I enjoyed @aeastwick.bsky.social's analysis of Jabari Smith Jr's play in that game! Full video here: aeastwick.substack.com/p/film-break...

It's the shoulders ;)

(Maybe what you're saying is that needn't have been the alternative in a world where they didn't make the trade?)

Totally buy the aesthetic preference argument. If winning isn't everything then having players you want to root for and having them play well is something to prioritise! But this is still better than constant losing, right?

I don't get to watch the #Knicks much, but I was amazed by how few outside shots KAT took in that game against the #Rockets. Weren't people saying he was maybe the best 3pt shooting big man ever? Even though he was playing well in the post, I was very relieved to see him not popping.

Was it really an overpay if it got thr Wolves to a point where they're a perennial playoff contender after decades of mediocrity? I appreciate some people are rings or bust, but surely the relative success of the team since the trade compared to before is pretty valuable?

Best feed on BlueSky (for me, anyway!). Definitely worth pinning this one if you like NBA chat IMO.

Yeah, all working now! Thanks man, really appreciate you putting in the effort to provide a great feed :).

This seems to have stopped working for me - any idea what happened? Did I miss something?

Yeah, agree with this. I actually really liked the way Reed and Sengun's two-man game was working. They had some pretty possessions where they didn't score but had good looks. Would like to see them run that some more (ANYTHING not to watch KD iso-ing into a double team and turning it over, TBH).

In general I think when you have more chaos agents on the floor they have a multiplicative effect on the defense, so I think putting him out there with Amen and Tari would have worked very well. But you're right it would have complicated the #Rockets guard rotation.

Anyway, despite the disappointment at the end I did think the #Rockets overall played pretty well and it was a really fun matchup. I'd love to see them play teams like the #Pistons and #Knicks more often, but it's going to take something special to get a playoff matchup. (Would be awesome though!)

There were a few defensive breakdowns on the #Rockets' pick and roll coverage where the rotations were late behind the play. At the NBA level nobody should be rolling to the rim from the 3 point line unaccosted, but Mitchell Robinson managed it a couple of times when they sent two at Brunson.

He's going to be a perfect fit in New York - seems like a stereotypically perfect #Knicks kind of guy. I was kind of surprised to see them playing both him and Brunson on the court late, but it ended up working! He beat Sheppard off the dribble a couple of times, which made a big difference for them

There were a couple of really avoidable mistakes earlier in the game that the #Rockets could have cut out. DFS passing it to Tari for a back-court violation springs to mind, or KD getting T'ed up. But you get those in every game and really with an 18 point lead they should have got it done.

Was super impressed by OG Anunoby's hands. Some of the turnovers he got in that first half were ridiculous, and contributed to them building that big lead. We know that the #Rockets' weakness is ball security, and his ability to poke it loose made a big difference.