The Rockets Are Still Capable of Getting Hot

The Houston Rockets opened the postseason with a difficult loss against the Golden State Warriors. Houston's offense never got going as the Rockets scored their lowest single-game point total of the season. While the team had a bad showing in the postseason opener, the Rockets still have areas where they could do damage offensively moving forward in the series.

The Rockets are best offensively when all three of their top young players are hot. Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green are all capable of creating their own shot, and they're depended on to create shots for others.

Sengun's usual method of waiting for a double and kicking out to an open shooter didn't work against Golden State. The Warriors played one-on-one against Sengun under the basket. The Turkish big man dominated in the paint because of the single coverage, but he wasn't able to feed his teammates for open shots.

Sengun's shooters weren't hitting their shots even when they did receive a pass to an open spot.

Jabari Smith Jr. had a strong shooting night, hitting all his attempts. Green and Fred VanVleet are the main players on the team who shot significantly worse than their season average. Green hit 35 percent of his threes during the regular season, while VanVleet converted on a little more than 34 percent from deep.

Houston's backcourt did not play up to its regular-season standards as they combined to hit just 2 of 17 3-point attempts. Both makes were by VanVleet, who may have hurt the Rockets with his 11 misses from 3-point range. Green at least stopped shooting when he knew he wasn't making shots, but he shot so poorly inside the arc that it still didn't help his offense to drive into the paint.

The Warriors have several pesky defenders like Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler and Gary Payton II. Houston's ballhandlers must adjust to Golden State's elite defense and find ways to knock down enough shots to keep the defense off balance.

While the Rockets had a bad showing against Golden State in the opener, they can still turn things around and keep up with the Warriors' scoring. Having some of their players hit their season average in 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage will go a long way to helping Houston get hot offensively.

Houston will likely have a few games in this series where shots fall and shooting percentages look much better. However, the Rockets may have more games where their shots don't fall. If Houston can create enough scoring in those instances, it may be able to keep an even series against the Warriors.