“Block Party” in Houston

Stephen Silas had prepared his game against the Mavericks with “80%” of his instructions which obviously concerned Luka Doncic. The forfeiture of the Slovenian forced the Rockets’ coach to throw “his preparation out the window to make a new one”.

This was not a bad thing because everything became easier for the Rockets. The Dallas starters missed their game with only 27 total points scored. Orphaned by Luka Doncic, without imagination, Jason Kidd’s players lit up without success at 3-pts, with an ugly 12/55 …

“We let the opposing team counter 19 shots, so we deserve to lose,” said Tim Hardaway Jr. to the Houston Chronicle, author of 28 points and only offensive threat with Christian Wood. “They did a good job of protecting their rackets.”

Five counters for Alperen Sengun, including a decisive one

The Dallas guard delivered the number of the game: 19 counters for Houston. A huge statistic since it is almost the franchise record (20), achieved 38 years ago to the day, November 16, 1984. It was then the tenth game of Hakeem Olajuwon’s career.

“Nineteen contests, that’s crazy. It was crazy. We haven’t won as many games as we’d like, but we’re giving it our all. I think we have the potential to be a good team defensively,” said Usman Garuba, who had three blocks of his own. “That was the goal: to counter a lot of shots,” adds Stephen Silas. “We wanted to protect our racquet and our circle. We did that well.”

In the details of these counters, some of which were very spectacular, we have Usman Garuba’s three, three also for Kevin Porter Jr, two for Jabari Smith Jr, Kenyon Martin Jr. and Daishen Nix. Even Jalen Green managed to contribute with a counter, as did Tari Eason.

As a result, there are five left, all of which are for Alperen Sengun. The Turk made an important move late in the game, with a counter on an alley-oop from Christian Wood (26 points).

“He resisted well and did an outstanding job against Wood,” notes Stephen Silas, who saw the Mavericks attack the pivot very often after the pick-and-roll. “That move at the end was excellent, huge even. He was very good on defense.”