Rockets duly lose to Mavericks

Well, that was a good first half, again. The Rockets competed, played hard, and went into halftime with a slight lead - 53-52. That shows the Rockets can play a Dallas team, without their All NBA player Luka Doncic, close. So that’s...something.

The second half saw a greater effort from Dallas, particular from their two guard, Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie. The two combined for 54 points, but only 10 assists, as they were mostly scoring. The Rockets managed to keep the margin of defeat under 20pts, and thus useless for drinking game purposes.

Sadly, there’s no Real Rampaging Rando tonight, as both Brunson and Dinwiddie are good players, and not randos. The closest to that distinction isn’t Dwight Powell, as one might expect, but Frank Ntilikina, (who doesn’t like being called Frankie Smokes, one of Bill Simmons lesser efforts at a nickname). Frank had 13pts, and 4 assists. This is below his career high of 20pts, so there’s no joy there.

What was good was Alperen Sengun, who had 14pts, 11rbs, 2ast, 2stl in 22 minutes of action off the bench. Christian Wood did not repeat his free-scoring ways, only managing 12pts and 1-5 3pt shooting.

There really aren’t any outstanding performances to speak of, though there were a few decent ones. There’s nothing much good to be said for 4-28 3pt shooting, though.

The Rockets managed to strengthen their “lead” or at least grasp, on the NBA’s worst record as Detroit won, and OKC defeated Orlando.

The next game could be much, much, harder to lose, as Portland is effectively fielding a GLeague roster, with Ben McLemore their finest scorer. No, that’s not a joke.

The season is winding down, but we’ve seen progress, and a surprisingly useful amount of losing. Onward! The draft awaits.