In many ways, the Houston Rockets’ 133-125 loss to the Utah Jazz in the second game of their first back-to-back of the season was predictable, especially given the margin by which the Rockets won the first game. Things never come that easily in the NBA.
Yet, with Adams missing his third game of the season, Houston was out-rebounded and out-manned throughout essentially the entirety of the matchup: a concerning sign given the fact that Adams will almost certainly need to continue to rest this season in order to maintain his health for the playoffs.
As Adams enters the latter stages of his career, he is most effective in short bursts, and, although his missing one game is certainly not the end of the world (nor is the team’s loss to Utah, for that matter), it is disconcerting that the team relies upon him this heavily to maintain their physical advantage when it matters most.
Steven Adams has always had an outsized impact on the Rockets, and tonight served as a reminder
Make no bones about it; the Jazz looked like an entirely different team than the turnover-prone, shaky squad that the Rockets faced yesterday, and Houston largely had no answers for it. Utah shot 50% from the field and 40% from 3-point range on the night, putting up 68 first-half points on a team that, heading into tonight, had the second-best defensive rating in the NBA.
Yet, much of that elite defensive performance has been dependent upon their ability to play big whenever the game or situation called for it, and tonight they were limited in that regard by Adams’s absence.
In response, Will Hardy and the Jazz went as big as possible for large swathes of the game. Lauri Markkanen played 37 minutes. Kyle Filipowski played 29. Even Kevin Love played extended minutes, tasked with matching up against Alperen Sengun in the paint.
Clint Capela, who was brought back to the organization for situations such as these, played only nine minutes on the night and was not particularly productive.
Accordingly, the Rockets were out-rebounded, 53-63. This, in and of itself, is not a jaw-dropping surprise. The Jazz, heading into Monday night’s action, averaged the sixth-most rebounds in the NBA on a per-game basis.
Yet, what is concerning is that the Rockets were not able to conform to the new pressures and demands placed upon their defense in Adams’s absence. They allowed the Jazz far too many paint touches and easy finishes at the basket while failing to capitalize, to the extent they usually do, on second-chance opportunities on the offensive end.
Given the way the team has clearly chosen to manage Adams’s health, this is something they must learn to navigate as the season wears on.
