The First 48: A Look at the Houston Rockets Game in Minnesota
On Wednesday night, ESPN gave fans an exciting doubleheader with serious playoff implications in the finale. The Houston Rockets traveled up north to Minnesota for a dance with the Wolves. Much like in their first matchup, Anthony Edwards had to sit out for tonight’s game.
Houston hopes for this to help them get the 2-0 advantage for the season series. Minnesota came out with an aggressive defensive mindset, making it tough for the Rockets to put the ball in the bucket. After taking nearly five minutes to get six points, and half of the quarter to get to double digits, shots finally started dropping.
An elbow jumper and deep three from Sheppard helped make it 17-19, but Houston couldn’t manage to get the lead. Turnovers played a big role in that, finishing the quarter behind 19-23. Durant only made one out of his seven attempts as both teams combined to shoot 30-percent.
An ugly start to say the least. Ime Udoka tried to let them play through their struggles after yet another turnover gave Minnesota another eight point advantage at 26-34. They only had eight made field goals compared to their seven turnovers.
The half ended closer than it probably should have with Houston only down a single point. Not too bad after a historically bad shooting first half from Durant, going only 2/11 from the field. Starting the final 24 minutes, a middy rimmed out for Durant and kept his team behind for a bit longer.