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Jabari Smith Jr. & Alperen Sengun have brought a much-needed calmness to the Houston Rockets\u2019 offense in their consecutive wins against the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: Read more NBA coverage from The Athletic\u00a0here<\/a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n LOS ANGELES \u2014 After the Houston Rockets suffered one of their worst losses of the season last Friday \u2014 one many viewed as the final nail in their coffin \u2014 coach Ime Udoka delivered a message to his group summed up in two words.<\/p>\n \u201cGrow up,\u201d Udoka said angrily after the Rockets\u2019\u00a0historic collapse against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3.<\/p>\n But when Udoka delivered that message, he wasn\u2019t telling them to act like they\u2019ve been there before. He was telling them to remember that they\u2019d been in these situations and should know better about the focus and execution required to win in the playoffs, especially when their backs are against the wall. The Rockets had firsthand experience last season after recovering from a 3-1 deficit and pushing their first-round series against the Golden State Warriors to a Game 7.<\/p>\n After Wednesday\u2019s\u00a099-93 victory over the Lakers in Game 5, the Rockets are working to put themselves in position to make history. Houston is looking to become the first NBA team to win a series after trailing 3-0. Game 6 is set for Friday night at Toyota Center<\/p>\n The Rockets have crawled back into this series without Kevin Durant, who missed the opener with a bruised right knee and has been out since Game 2 with a left ankle sprain. Udoka and his starting lineup, which features five players who are 24 years old or younger, are showing tremendous fight after most of the basketball world assumed this series was over.<\/p>\n Houston is also showing incredible maturity for such a young team. Even if they don\u2019t win this series, the growth the Rockets have shown in putting the Lakers on their heels proves how much they\u2019ve learned from their mistakes rather than crumbling from the weight of them.<\/p>\n \u201cBig-time performances by everybody across the board,\u201d Udoka said Wednesday. \u201cYou start this really young lineup, and they are somewhat battle-tested now. (We needed to) show growth in certain moments and progress in certain moments. Obviously, in a game situation when you turn the ball over twice and foul a shooter, you want to show growth, and I think we did that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n One moment in particular put on full display Houston\u2019s rapid growth in this series. With 2:59 left in the fourth quarter, LeBron James raced through the lane for a left-handed layup that cut what once was a 13-point Houston lead to 88-85. The roar from the Crypto.com Arena crowd was louder than it had been all night, and the memory of that Game 3 collapse hung in the air.<\/p>\n As Houston inbounded, Udoka screamed to Reed Sheppard that he needed to demand the ball. The 21-year-old point guard jogged over and received the pass from his teammate. A million thoughts could\u2019ve been racing through Sheppard\u2019s mind in that moment \u2014 and there\u2019s little doubt his costly turnover with 30 seconds left in Game 3 had to be one of them \u2014 but Sheppard made a new memory that demonstrated why Udoka still trusted him with the game on the line despite his previous mistakes.<\/p>\n Sheppard nearly lost the ball for a second, but once he recovered, he calmly dribbled to his spot and nailed a 15-foot jumper that silenced the crowd. On the ensuing Lakers possession, Sheppard attacked James as he tried to drive to the basket and ripped the ball away for a steal before racing to the other end for an easy dunk.<\/p>\n It was undoubtedly the biggest moment of Sheppard\u2019s young career.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter what happened in Game 3, we could\u2019ve very easily shut it down, pouted and quit. That\u2019s not what we did,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cWe watched it, and we learned from it. We keep fighting and keep giving ourselves a chance to play.\u201d<\/p>\n Where this series has swung the most is with Houston\u2019s defense, which has held the Lakers below 100 points in each of the last two games, despite the return of guard Austin Reaves (oblique strain) in Game 5. The ball pressure provided by Sheppard, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason has constantly disrupted the flow of the Lakers\u2019 offense \u2014 after Los Angeles scored with relative ease in the first three games of the series. The Rockets have focused the most attention on slowing down Lakers guards Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard, who were the stars of the series early on.<\/p>\n Kennard was averaging 21.3 points on 55 percent shooting through the first three games of the series. He\u2019s scored a combined eight points in the last two games, and was held to one point in Game 5 on 0-of-4 shooting. Smart was averaging 20.3 points and 8.3 assists while shooting 53 percent from the floor through the first three games. He was held to nine points in Game 4 and followed that up with 11 points and six turnovers Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a good defensive team,\u201d Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the mental side and where to be, who to close out on and tendencies, follow the game plan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just been locking in on that the last few games, and I think it\u2019s been working. \u2026 It\u2019s just the mental side that\u2019s picked up the most.\u201d<\/p>\n While the defense has been improved, Houston\u2019s arguably two most talented offensive players in its young core \u2014 Alperen Sengun and Smith \u2014 have played with patience and unwavering confidence. Smith finished with a team-high 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting in Game 5, while Sengun controlled the offense with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. With Durant probably unlikely to return in this series, Sengun and Smith have had to provide that steady presence on offense to slow things down and get good shots consistently.<\/p>\n Sengun said the Lakers\u2019 complex defensive schemes were getting him to rush on his post-ups early in the series. He was playing in traffic too much or throwing up wild shots at the rim rather than reading the floor.<\/p>\n Now, he\u2019s seeing a much clearer picture of what the Lakers are throwing at him and picking his spots. Over the last three games, Sengun is averaging 22 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists while shooting 54.2 percent from the floor.<\/p>\n Houston\u2019s half-court offense was pitiful to start this series \u2014 even when Durant played in Game 2 \u2014 but it\u2019s come a long way.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re learning,\u201d Sengun said. \u201cWatching film, watching their defense. (We) kind of understand what they\u2019re doing now.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no reason for me to rush the shot or attack the double-team. I\u2019m just trying to pick them apart and find my teammates and find open shots. That was my job today.\u201d<\/p>\n As much excitement as Houston is generating by keeping this series going, it also provides incredible value for a team that isn\u2019t just competing for the present. The Rockets are building a future around a young core showing the mental toughness and unity that are a necessity in the playoffs.<\/p>\n Many thought they were ready to quit on each other. Now, they\u2019re looking more dangerous than some could\u2019ve imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like \u2026 we\u2019re growing up together,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s just good to see Reed bounce back from the mistake (in Game 3), me bounce back from the mistake (in Game 3), just the team in general. With us in the same kind of situation today \u2026 a week ago, we folded and lost the game. I think that\u2019s a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Will Guillory <\/a>is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Before joining The Athletic, he was a writer at The Times-Picayune\/NOLA Media Group, and he\u2019s been on the Pelicans beat since 2016. He is a New Orleans native. Follow Will on X @WillGuillory<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jabari Smith Jr. & Alperen Sengun have brought a much-needed calmness to the Houston Rockets\u2019 offense in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,310332,85],"class_list":["post-640952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-rockets-young-players","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}