NBA Cup will be Houston Rockets’ first step onto much larger stage

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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Among the NBA intelligentsia (or what passes for it), the Houston Rockets have become a League Pass favorite. They are athletic, deep, and play with the grit and intensity their coach Ime Udoka showed in a seven-year NBA career, which made him a favorite of the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich.

Houston swarms opponents defensively then uses the created turnovers and awkward missed shots to get out and run — where they have some highlight-reel finishers.

ROCKETS IN NBA CUP SPOTLIGHT

Houston’s days as an indie favorite playing small clubs are about to end.

Wednesday night, the Rockets step onto a much bigger stage: An NBA Cup quarterfinal game against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors (9:30 ET on TNT). It’s a chance for the world to see what has made Houston a 16-8 No. 3 seed in the West with the second-best defense in the league.

“Ime has definitely come in and put his stamp on the team,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said of the Rockets before his team lost to them Sunday night. “Tough nose team that’s going to play defense and compete every single night. And he got the guys that he wants there, he did the same thing in Boston. So they have a great defensive-minded team and they play hard, compete every single night.”

When that swarming Rockets defense forces turnovers and rushed shots, it allows them to get out and run with their athletes — and that’s when they pull away and win games. It was evident Sunday against the Clippers when a 10-2 run at the end of the first half gave the Rockets a comfortable double-digit lead at the half that they never relinquished.

Sunday night, that defense started with Amen Thompson, who Udoka praised for the job he did on Norman Powell (the Clippers’ leading scorer with James Harden out). Powell was held in check shooting 5-of-18 for the night, 1-of-8 from beyond the arc.

That’s not all Thompson had to step up and do. With Fred VanVleet out Sunday due to a knee contusion (his status for Wednesday is not official, but expect him to play), Thompson was thrust into more of a shot-creator/point guard role. He is growing into that over rookie season and the start of…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-cup-houston-rockets-first-205833960.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-09 20:58:00

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