Stephen Silas had prepared his match against the Mavericks with “80%” of his instructions which obviously concerned Luka Doncic. The Slovenian package therefore forced the Rockets coach to throw “its preparation out the window to make a new one”.
That wasn’t a bad thing since everything got easier for the Rockets. The holders of Dallas missed their meeting with only 27 points scored in total. Orphans of Luka Doncic, without imagination, the players of Jason Kidd lit without success at 3-pts, with an ugly 12/55…
“We let the opposing team block 19 shots, so we deserve to lose”assumes Tim Hardaway Jr. at the Houston Chronicleauthor of 28 points and only offensive threat with Christian Wood. “They protected their racquet well. »
Five blocks for Alperen Sengun, including a decisive one
The rear of Dallas delivered the number of the meeting: 19 blocks 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.
“19 blocks is crazy. It was crazy. We didn’t win as many matches as we would like, but we give it our all. I think we have the potential to be a good team defensively.” explains Usman Garuba, who has compiled three “blocks” on 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 it well. »
In the detail of these counters, some of which were very spectacular, we have the three of Usman Garuba, three also for Kevin Porter Jr, two for Jabari Smith Jr, Kenyon Martin Jr. and Daishen Nix. Even Jalen Green manages to bring his stone to the building with a counter, just like Tari Eason.
Therefore, there are five left, all of which are for Alperen Sengun. The Turk notably made an important action at the end of the game, with a counter on an alley-oop from Christian Wood (26 points).
“He held up well and did a great job against Wood,” notes Stephen Silas, who has seen the Mavericks very often attack the pivot after the pick-and-roll. “This action at the end is excellent, enormous even. He was very good in defense. »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV1mYq-k1Hw
