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On this day in 1993, Shaquille O’Neal had 24 points, 28 rebounds and 15 blocks in an 87-85 win over the New Jersey Nets. It’s the second-most blocks in a game in NBA history, tying Manute Bol. (There were two other 20-20 games with at least 12 blocks. Hakeem Olajuwon had 24 points, 21 rebounds and 12 blocks in 1989. The other happened in 1998 with 22 points, 22 rebounds and 13 blocks. Shawn Bradley did that one.)
Left Behind?
Where do the Rockets stand?
“You watching the Cavs’ game with the Rockets?”
That was a text from my dad during the first quarter of Houston vs. Cleveland last night. About 45 minutes later, he revised his question.
“Should have asked if you were watching the Rockets!”
The Rockets (10-3) have definitely garnered plenty of attention over the last year or two. They controlled the Cavs (10-6) for most of their 114-104 victory, holding off a 19-point Donovan Mitchell fourth quarter. Alperen Şengün had 28 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Kevin Durant had 20 points. Aaron Holiday put in 18 off the bench. Stars were good. Role players were helpful. Opponents were hammered on the offensive boards.
On the broadcast, Doris Burke said the Rockets shouldn’t be mentioned with the Thunder and Nuggets at the top of the Western Conference just yet — a grouping the Rockets hoped to be part of prior to the season. But losing Fred VanVleet to a knee injury before it started hurt those chances quite a bit.
Even without FVV, should the Rockets be considered in that top class in the West? The Rockets are currently a half-game behind the 11-3 Nuggets. And the Rockets have a better net rating than every team not named the Thunder.
Houston had the 13th most efficient offense a year ago. But it couldn’t shoot (23rd in eFG) and it was mostly predicated on not turning the ball over (sixth) and offensive rebounding (first) keeping possessions alive. That’s not the case anymore.
The Rockets now have the best offense in the NBA. They’ve jumped to eighth in effective field goal percentage and to sixth in free-throw volume (from 26th!). They’re playing slower. They’re more methodical. And they’re executing on this end of the court instead of just playing a chaotic game of tip-in drills.
The Rockets are the top 3-point shooting team in terms of accuracy, making 42.3 percent of their attempts. But this team has the lowest volume of 3-point attempts. So they’re making the most of the few 3-pointers they put up. They’re just bullying everybody on the boards and making life hell for the interior of every opponent.
The entire Rockets team outside of Amen Thompson has delivered on outside shooting. They seem to have a great balance of bully ball and offensive execution. So why wouldn’t they be up there with OKC and Denver when their results are similar to both?
The Rockets haven’t slipped much on defense. They were fifth last season and currently sit seventh in the league — giving up a little over a point per 100 possessions in comparison. The difference between Houston and the OKC-Denver contingent early in this season just seems to be recency bias. The Rockets haven’t won a title in decades. Durant hasn’t won one in seven years. And the Nuggets and Thunder took two of the last three.
If the Rockets aren’t there right now, they’re definitely not far from it. Their results show they should be in that conversation.
The Last 24
Dallas staying the course
🏀 Trade AD? Mark Cuban says the Mavericks won’t trade Anthony Davis. “We want to try to win.”
🙅 Not a chance. Remember when the Knicks were pursuing Jason Kidd this summer? He said he never considered it.
📈 Most improved? Fred Katz has five players who look the most improved this season. Jalen Duren and Jaime Jaquez Jr. lead the way.
💰 Bad fine? The NBA fined the Cavs $100k for violating the participation policy. “I gotta look at the Cavs’ best interest,” Kenny Atkinson said.
🌎 Heavy hitters. The NBA wants to create a European league. It’s looking at powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
And-None
Offensive foul or not, this Jarrett Allen dunk will be scored
During the first half of the Cavs’ loss to the Rockets, we thought we were going to have a massive dunk moment … for about two seconds. Lonzo Ball hit Jarrett Allen with a perfect pocket pass on a pick-and-roll. Allen only had Şengün in his way, and he decided to get very ambitious with the next move.
Ay dios mio! That is a poster! But unfortunately, an offensive foul was called on the play. I immediately yelled an expletive in disagreement and demanded a replay. I wanted confirmation of a bad call. And this angle is pretty difficult to refute.
OK, fine! He hit him in the face! But sometimes a dunk should count, even if you still need to assess the foul. If a dunk is awesome enough, it should still count. We need to encourage more attempts at the rim to catch a body. But an offensive foul will not stop the BIDS (Bounce Index Dunk Score) System from assessing a dunk:
- Convulsion/jump scare: 10/10. We know Allen can rock the rim, but him jumping two feet from the dotted line made this a big surprise dunk. The violence of it all made it another level. This is a perfect “out of your seat” moment.
- Bench reaction: 7/10. You don’t see it until the end of this clip, but it jumped up right away. It’s always better when it happens near your bench, though. And the Rockets bench didn’t react at all, not even out of instinct.
- Dunker reaction: 5/10. A few things hurt this score. 1) He fell right on top of Şengün. 2) He doesn’t do a lot of trash talking or reacting in general. 3) By the time he was helped up, he knew it was an offensive foul call.
- Where is the damn replay? 9/10. I needed to see it immediately, and I was pining for more angles with each showing. Plus, you wanted to see if the offensive foul was legitimate.
- Witness protection scale: 8/10. This does get hurt by the foul call on Allen. Otherwise, it might have been a perfect 10/10.
Total BIDS score for Allen: 39/50.
You have a Zach Harper/Bounce guarantee. Just because an offensive foul is called, does not mean this dunk is erased. It will live here, and it will be scored … if it’s nasty enough.
About Last Night
The Raptors are second in the East
Yes, those Raptors. All summer long, the Raptors (10-5) were mocked for being such an expensive roster. They’re the 12th priciest one, for a team that won just 30 games last season. Their roster costs roughly the same as Denver’s. So clearly, they must be misspending. I like their roster and don’t mind the cost. It’s also not my money.
Nearly one month into the season, Houston seems to be spending wisely. After it took down the 76ers (8-6) last night and the Rockets defeated the Cavs, the Raptors moved into second place in the East. Did anybody have them this successful early on? Even though I openly pushed back on the mockery of their spending, I was still too cowardly to put them in the postseason.
Against Philly, Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett led the way with 22 points each, and Scottie Barnes added 16 points (and a taunt of Jared McCain). Toronto has the seventh best offense in the league and its playing league-average defense. It’s working right now.
Elsewhere:
Heat (9-6) 110, Warriors (9-8) 96: The Warriors didn’t have Steph Curry, Draymond Green or Jimmy Butler. The Heat didn’t care. They used a 38-22 fourth quarter to overcome a 55-point effort from the Warriors’ bench.
Nuggets (11-3) 125, Pelicans (2-13) 118: Something positive for the Pelicans? Derik Queen brought it last night, scoring 30 points on 12-of-18 from the floor. Nikola Jokić finished one turnover away from a quadruple-double (28-11-12-9). Peyton Watson had 32 points and 12 rebounds for Denver.
Knicks (9-5) 113, Mavs (4-12) 111: Cooper Flagg missed his first NBA game (with an illness), and Jalen Brunson returned for the Knicks, so it was a recipe for disaster for Dallas. And yet, it almost forced overtime but a questionable offensive foul waved off the bucket. Brunson had 28 points and N.Y. survived 64 bench points from Dallas.
Thunder (15-1) 113, Kings (3-12) 99: What did you think was going to happen? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 33 points. OKC is the hottest team in the West with seven straight wins. They’re on pace for 76 dubs.
Bulls (8-6) 122, Blazers (6-9) 121: Neither the Bulls nor the Blazers can play a normal basketball game this season. Portland used a 33-9 run in the final 9:15 to look victorious. Then Nikola Vučević dropped the dagger with the game-winning 3.
Wolves (10-5) 120, Wizards (1-13) 109: Minnesota was up 25 at half and then Washington made this very close before the Wolves closed it out in the final minutes. Naz Reid had 28 off the bench and Julius Randle had 32. A win is a win, but the Wolves shouldn’t have allowed this to get close.
Pacers (2-13) 127, Hornets (4-11) 118: The cure for the Pacers’ woes? The Hornets. Bennedict Mathurin had 24 and Jay Huff scored 20 off the bench for the Pacers to get their second win of the season. Kon Knueppel continued his good play with 28 for Charlotte.
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