ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Thunder 10/21/2025

This is a really good team, unfortunately without a true pass first point guard, they're going to lose a lot of games like this. Reed is a spot shooter and Amen has that dangerous drive and kick but they don't see the floor like a true point guard. There were moments where KD was clapping his hands begging for the ball but Reed or Amen ignored him and did something that led to a turnover. I haven't looked at the cap situation but I'd at least give Spencer Dwindle a call, it shouldn't cost too much he was just waived off a 9 mil contract from the hornets. If he doesn't have any game left, the second DFS is healthy Tari should be out the door. The big lineup is great but it showed the rockets have a lot of redundancy on this team, its good for versatility but right now they need to use that redundancy to address a big need.

 

It’s official. Season is OVER. Blow it up, Murray.

 

Nothing worse than leading the whole way practically only to lose in the last few minutes.

 

Less than a year ago, 4 year vet Jalen Green had a worse game against OKC than Reed did last night.

Let's have some patience.... he was there in critical situations because DFS and Amen were unavailable.

 

Thats Rocketball!

Seriously, there’s something in the water in H-Town because we’ve rarely had lockdown teams. We just don’t do it.

 

Reed looked ignored out there. Always lined up at the 3 point line never getting a pass . Basically, just looked like a guy standing there doing nothing.

 

This is a weird take. OKC is a premium defensive team.

They averaged .354 turnovers per minute last year.

Last night was .362 per minute.

It was a handful more turnovers. A lot of that can be contributed to being early in season.

 

LOL

 

A lot of the individual players had great moments where they looked improved from last year. Overall the team looked a little discombobulated. Promising, then, that they took the defending champs to double overtime in their house.

On the flip side, there were a few moments that were like “if we fail, this is how we will fail.”

 

Wrong….Tari has choked in every pressure game he’s ever played in. Reed not playing well, but still has zero playoff games to go off of before we decide he’s a choker too.

 

If you had to compare ball handling

Ariza is Allen Iverson when compared to Eason. That guy loses the ball, wreckless possessions. Only thing he does well is stand by the basket, find loose balls. I honestly don’t see much improving from him.

 

Shoulda played tate

 

It`s only game one and we took the NBA champs to OT, I also noticed several times KD was asking for the ball and was ignored, IMO that will be fixed over time but man we need a pass first PG who can read the room. I have a good feeling about this team, but it will take some time to gel, KD is a beast and overall I liked what I saw, but PLEASE can we go get a real PG

 

he’s injured.

 

Okay after sleeping and calming down here’s my honest thoughts:

If it wasn’t clear before, we will struggle mightily without a PG or just combo guards / wings in general to break down the defense and create. Obviously missing FVV and Reed & Amen adjusting will have some early growing pains. Of course we have to be patient, but with a KD on your team you cannot wait too long. I expect if we do not make serious progress on that front, as in Amen and or Reed showing they can handle it by the trade deadline, then we should be trading for a guard.

Maybe OKC’s defense is not the right team to grade or take anything away from in terms of gameplan, strategy and what Ime and our coaches worked on with these guys, but that there were some serious issues on offense is an understatement, but even on defense so head scratchers for sure. The double big line-up, especially after seeing Reed have major jitters and not ready for the limelight - defensively he used to be able to hold his own, now every single guard just went past him as if he wasn’t there - is the right choice against a team like OKC and maybe even against every single team for now. But when you look at their team and how Reed and Tari were not on point, an Okogie and Amen backcourt made sense to go with for most of the game. Especially because on defense the times Jabari ended on SGA was crazy and he got burned every single time.

Then on offense I don’t know if there’s any sort of pecking order, but KD just standing there, nobody setting a screen for him to get open and if he was open getting ignored was wild to see. Tari and Reed the main culprits. I saw Sengun looking to pass to KD several times and glad he just went **** it, I’ll take it, but it almost seemed like he was a decoy - often not a very good one - or just there as a threat and a test to see if they could do it without him. Roster construction aside, Capela saw too little time on the court to judge and Ime still refuses to use Jeff Green in a game where spacing was a serious issue, Aaron for that matter would've been good to see if he could find his shot since Reed definitely didn’t. These types of decisions are a sign of stubbornness, also allowing Tari to work through his ****, this was just not the game to do that. Save that for the Pistons and weaker teams. This was a game where you try anything and I really dislike how Ime refuses to use his bench when others are not producing. Drove me up the wall in the playoffs and even more now.

As far as KD goes, I really don’t know what to make of him. I know whenever we played him in the past, the kind of passive mode has always been there and it’s why I never really feared him that much. Add to that the constant holding, grabbing, our offense taking 10-15 seconds to even get it to guy who could possible do something with it, KD’s age, first real game against best defense in the league and these guys needing to adjust to each other, and I get why KD didn’t look like the most assertive guy on the court. He’s trying to fit in, is not the guy who just says give me the ball, jump on my back and follow - literally a quote from the Starting Five doc - but isn’t that why we got him? And why did it take so long for him to get on SGA when Jabari clearly couldn’t and KD actually can to a degree?

I really don’t know what to make of him so far, but aside from shooting I am not too impressed. He didn’t box out for several times, committed silly fouls because he was late or didn’t box out and then to end the game on jumping at SGA when all he needed to do was use his arms to prevent a shot or at least his vision at a good shot. You never jump at a guy who’s notorious for getting to the line, with the game on the line, especially with that height advantage. Also the time-out brainfart, thank god the game didn’t end there. How does a veteran like him not know the time-out situation?! Some serious rookie mistakes there.
Tari - this was bad, the cussing out was just emotion, but as a fan - only guy outside of Dream and Maxwell I have a jersey of - I don’t take any joy in feeling like this and saying this. I still feel like it’s one of the worst games I’ve ever seen a guy play given how he normally plays, how he was the first guy off the bench, how he looked in pre-season. Clearly the guy is in his head and at least in this game, probably for the first time in Tari’s Rockets career - he did not give it his all. Maybe out of spite, maybe injury fears, combination of both maybe, but it was truly atrocious.

How he was allowed to work through that **** is beyond me given the team we were playing, but I guess Ime’s strategy is to show trust and faith in the guy who’s likely already not feeling the most welcome anymore. If he had punished Tari, it would've just confirmed a feeling he had or might have isolated him more. But at the same time, cannot put a guy’s feelings over the team, or any individual over the team. And when you play as bad as he did, without the effort, then to bench him would've been totally justified and understandable.
Reed will be fine, he recovered from early game jitters and then when pressure got high he just folded, but that’s okay. It’s just defensively that I have serious questions. I am more worried about Jabari if anything. He completely disappeared for 2-3 quarters and then had his moments in both OTs, but man. That strength wasn’t there, mistakes on defense, offense looked like he couldn’t dribble again or didn’t dare to. I’m not going to overreact to either, but it was kind of weird to see. Capela had his moments, Okogie had some hits and some misses on both ends but at least a wing who should get more minutes over Reed & Tari if they keep that play up, Amen was more good than bad and we really missed him at the end there. These guys should be fine.

Last but not least, Sengun. What is there to say at this point, but holy moly did he play like he was our leader and ready for the big moments. He came through every single time, though going straight up instead of fading against Dort could’ve actually gotten him some FTs and I really wish he would’ve received the last shot, but setting screens to get open had been a game long issue. Though for me, I would’ve taken a Sengun near halfcourt 3 over that Jabari one, though of course it was far from the worst option, even if we only needed a 2…but Sengun, MVP, clearly did whatever he needed to do for us to win. Those threes were just money, the FTs were just money and he’s a different animal. Only realy good takeaway from this game for me.

Hanging with the champs does nothing for me right now as I am still wondering what I just witnessed until 5:15 am in the morning. This was honestly one of the most frustrating, mind-blowing, weirdest games I’ve ever watched. It was just all round off on so many fronts. So many shots we made were late in the clock, heavily defended and seemingly lost possessions where KD or Sengun just saved us. Nothing came easy. I guess I do have to applaud our guys for that. They hung in there and did everything they could, especially with a home crowd of a championship team against you and a referee crew that was just not going to call the fouls (just like in the playoffs). And this is not a conspiracy or fixed situation, even if it felt that way, but just how NBA refs call games. We had it working for us with Steph where Amen just held him and now Dort, Harty and whoever did it to our guys and it’s simply: they cannot call every foul, so whatever you can to get the upper hand, use it.

Which is why I was also frustrated with how we didn’t employ the same strategy or at least not accept the fouls. Show the referees by just standing there while Dort puts his hands on you, try to run away as hard as you can so your jersey rips and fight through it. We kind of gave in to their physical play and that was unexpected. Had the refs called it fairly, which never happens in this league made for television, we would’ve won or at least Dort would’ve needed to adjust, KD would’ve had more room to just play and that would’ve given us a serious advantage. Seriously though, I watched 80s and 90s physical basketball, this was not that common and just grabbing jerseys every single possession would not have worked back then as it would’ve been called. I’m all for refs allowing things, but this just holding someone and grabbing jerseys is not the type of “physical” play I want nor anyone I’m assuming.

It made the game freaking ugly and frustrating as hell on top of the already biased Mike Tirico - forget he was this annoying - and Reggie’s inability to shut up. The only solid voice out there was Crawford and I already hope we won’t get this trio ever again. The NBC intro gave me chills to be honest, but that scorebug on top of this crew and the MJ interview presented as some wisdom was not it for me. Banking on Prime to be the prime broadcaster quite frankly. To end on a positive note, losing 125-124 in double OT with Ime’s stubborn "I only play 8-9 guys” is nothing to be ashamed of, but we have some work to do. Let’s follow Sengun to the promised land and hope the likes of Tari and KD take some responsibility for the loss and Amen’s alright.

Oh yeah, to really end on a personal positive note, I am cured of following live games again - never happened this early in a season - and going traveling for 3 months (nov—febr) is a blessing in disguise. Just watch highlights like it was supposed to be according to Silver

 

Yes, he will never amount to anything in that role. He also wasn’t aggressive when he had the ball. Reed needs to be in attack mode and get into the paint and make things happen for himself and others. He feels comfortable doing that with the Vipers, but not with the Rockets. I know the talent level is different in the two leagues, but that is how he needs to play to be a big contributor. Reed will never make it if he just chooses to defer to others.

 

This is a great post. The Rockets has the makings of being a very good team, but they do need a more experienced pg in key, critical moments of a game.

 

Alright some day after thoughts:

1) We look like we started practicing together the day before pre-season. Its clear that the guys and KD arent on the same page a lot of the time. Amen is still getting used to running the offense and some reads were not there. This will iron out over time

2) Sengun. Don't need to say anything.

3) Amen. 0/7 from 3. 4 turnovers. Kept us in it late in the 4th with timely bucket after timely bucket. Dude just has it. Is being asked to do everything and cramped up because of it. We lost when he went out. No one could guard SGA at that point. Yall need to chill. He's going to run the team.

4) Jabari. Looked better than last year. Missed difficult shot to win but looks miles better dribbling, on offense and on defense. People freaking out about his dribbling vs the most tenacious defense apart from ours need to relax. He looks great and is always up for *that* moment unlike.....

5) Tari. The higher the leverage the worse this guy plays. He's just not smart and can get goaded into silly fouls, bad shots, etc. He's too slow for SGA/Brunson and too small for Luka/Cade. Still cant shoot. I'll give him time but he should've taken the money.

6) Lastly....KD. This isnt Phoenix anymore. He needs to be sharper with the ball. Got stripped a lot. Lazy passes. Couldn't get Dort off of him. Still scored but a bad game by his standards and what we're expecting. We lost because KD didnt play like he needs to play. Point blank. This is why we got him and he made a lot of mistakes. Ime needs to be on him for this. He isnt the #1 option anymore so he doesnt have to use as much energy as before. Disappointing debut from him to be fair.

Reed was fine outside of a few defensive lapses when his legs were probably shot (he's still a second year player). Okogie looked OK. I actually hate the double big and would rather just develop Reed and Amen.

 

Bulshit. Tari has been a terrific role player for us. He periodically makes dumb mistakes but overall is a terrific defensive player, strong rebounder and an opportunistic scorer. I'd rather he not dribble the ball much but he's an elite 6th or 7th man. He wasn't great in the playoffs but didn't **** all over himself like Jalen Green did.

Reed has accomplished nothing in the NBA. I still hope he can become a competent starter but that is pure hope. At this time, he's bad on offense and bad on defense. If he doesn't improve radically, we'll be trading for a new point guard after December 15th.

 

Entertaining game but very disappointed with missed FTs, TOs, etc.

Reed was definitely a turnstile on defense but he had some good passes and hit two 3s. He just needs more time. (Which he should have got last year).

OKC has an elite defense, so hopefully our offense will look better against lesser opponents.

All in all I was proud of the guys. Game could have gone either way.