We are truly blessed people to have witnessed three back-to-back-to-back incredible games. The city of Houston is draped in heavenly light; Space City Home Network is a truly wonderful broadcast -- God bless you Craig Ackerman.
This is that Amen legacy game. He put up the most incredible performance I've seen from him yet; he was everywhere on the court. I think now that we've won against Boston, people are starting to reconsider the 2023 Draft Class. Amen's playmaking, other than the midrange shooting, might have been the highlight of the game. He was driving and hitting crazy kickout passes to the perimeter -- he had this insane kickout to Cam for a three that was just beautiful. And the game-winner. . .I'm moved. He should've 2 in the Draft, but hey, I'm glad he fell to us at 4. It feels so good to have this freak on our team.
And Dillon, man, this might have been the game of his career. Apparently, he's never won against Boston in The Garden, so I'm glad we were able to give him this win. He was shooting the lights out of the ceiling this game. Ten threes is actually mind-blowing -- I never knew that Harden never made eleven before. It's so insane that Brooks is tied for the franchise record in threes made.
Just a great game overall. We always tend to lose our lead in the fourth quarters of games, but we always seem to close them out. Good potential playoff setting practice.
The first Rockets game I attend in-person and it's incredible. I think I screamed the loudest I have ever screamed, save the Dregs concert -- not sure anything will top that for a while. Went with three of my very good friends and we had a blast. Bought an Amen Thompson jersey (my favorite player) and spent roughly $200 today. And it was all worth it to see my boys win against the 2nd best team in the league.
Fred and Amen played incredible games tonight. Fred seems to have cleaned up his game over the season: averaging 48.5% from 3PT range the past 5 games has helped us win those games within that road stretch. He's also distributing the ball more, which is nice compared to the hero ball he would play in crucial quarters at the beginning of the season. It's been pretty clear lately that Fred is needed to run the ship in terms of our offense. Without him at the PG spot, we look disorganized and are more turnover-prone (even though we did have a lot of turnovers this game). Among guards, he's top ten in EPM, which is an advanced metric used to give a number to the impact that players have during any given game. His EPM is a +3.8, and ranks 9th among all guards in the NBA. This is most likely because even at his relatively small, 6'0" stature, he doesn't turn the ball over a lot, which is necessary if you're relegated to being the primary ball handler.
Amen's role currently is to play the forward position in place of Jabari Smith Jr., who's out with a hand injury at the moment. With him starting these past few games, his impact, particularly on the defensive end, is a lot more noticeable. As a wing, he is in the 99th percentile fgOR% at 8.4 and 94th in fgDR% at 15.2 for his position. Because of how elite he is at rebounding, we've been able to open up scoring opportunities within transition -- in fact, I believe that he's the main reason why we're such a good transition offense team.
The clear best players on the other side of the court were Garland and Allen. Watching Allen in person, it's surprising how fast he is for a big man. He had a steal on Fred that led to a fastbreak and-1 and he was zooming down the court. He was flopping all night though -- no hate to him. He was kind of beasting Şengün in the paint, just grabbing offensive rebounds. Garland also had a great night (aside from the free throw choking!) His floater game is no joke; I truly do believe he has the best floater in the NBA. . .maybe besides Lamelo. He's also incredibly fast as well, and his handle is real tight. In my opinion, he looks like a much better offensive force than Mitchell.
When they went on 19-0 run in that third quarter, I was screaming and crying and I couldn't believe it. It seems like our third quarters have been absolute stinkers throughout the season. Our defense also seems to have faltered, I don't know if it's a result of offenses scheming better, but we seem to be more susceptible to confusing defensive assignments or just not defending the pick and roll well. Thank God Garland choked those free throws (90% FT shooter on the season, by the way).
Overall, was an amazing first game in person this season. What an incredible rollercoaster ride. I know Mobley wasn't there, and that definitely would have altered the course of the game, but we also don't have Jabari either. Also, I think Jalen might be injured -- it was weird how timid he was with the ball now, even after his hot streak this month. He stopped attacking zones and is just finishing worse at the rim. Hopefully this is just a fluke; if it's an injury thing he should get some rest!