ClutchFans Game Thread: Pistons @ Rockets 10/24/2025

Post(game) mortem:

Rockets have a serious toughness problem. DB has his serious flaws, but they miss the element he brings. When scuffling happened last year, the Rockets became more confident and raised their game instead of becoming rattled. The Pistons completely flipped that script on them and it shocked me.

The Rockets played like junk the first 2-3 games of Ime's previous two seasons (and the Celtics did the first half of a season in 2022). I expected similar with this team. It's strange how well they played against OKC only to disintegrate against the Pistons.

They miss Fred in the worst way right now. They will adapt and improve, but team chemistry, pecking order and default tendencies are still being developed. Without Fred, the transition will be slower and very difficult, but they'll get there.

I wonder if the zone defense is finished. The Pistons attacked it mercilessly the same exact way and shredded it. The Rockets also seemed to give up an O-reb every time the Pistons missed against the zone that led to an easy second shot.

I hope the "KD is washed" folks feel ashamed of themselves. He, Adams and Okogie were the only ones that delivered the goods tonight. Okogie is already the 3rd guard and may become #2. Both Amen and Reed were on the bench starting the 2nd half when the Rockets made a run. Okogie was giving Cade fits and should have played some in the 4th.

Alpi may end up having his best season, but it appears going soft offensively on a regular basis may still be part of who he is. He played hard tonight but the force was sometimes lacking. When defense double-up KD and Alpi has a free run from the FT line, he's gotta kill defenses by either scoring, drawing the foul or dishing. This is a lick-your-chops "read and react" situation he isn't used to seeing but give him time.

Amen's jump shooting is off to a very slow start. This really doesn't surprise me. Jabari was very shaky and couldn't even take advantage of Duncan Robinson. If Reed had hit a couple of his runners on top of going 3/4 from long range, his story for tonight would be much different. His defense was better. Tari wasn't as clueless in game two. At least I can offer him some faint praise.

KD's postgame interview was very encouraging. I like his mindset as much as the 37 points.

 

I don’t understand, we basically made moves this summer that led to Reed being our main backup guard. So what, Ime and Stone are not synchronised? If Ime doesn’t believe in Reed, why not trading him?

 

Maybe give JD a chance next game coach?

 

48 free throws is great. It’s literally THE recipe for a championship. But losing when you get 48 free throws is the sign the ship is hemmorslging.

Fred is not the answer. People are forgetting how bad he was last year until the last few playoff games.

They need to work less to get those high percentage shots. Less iso. Run plays. And get the ball to the closer in the 4th. Jabari is not the closer. It shows a lack of awareness not to run plays for the best matchup and for your best two players down the home stretch. You don’t need a Fred or any other pg to do that. You need to have situational awareness in the 4th, and a strategy for the stretch.

 

Fred is not the answer - he's not the answer, but he is abundantly clear a vital cog... to think you can just get rid of your PG and not take several steps back is just plain idiotic (if you understand truly what a PG means to a basketball team), even when factoring in the monumental leap going from Jalen to KD means.

They need to work less to get those high percentage shots - funny, kind of seems like they need to work a whole lot harder to get those shots.

It shows a lack of awareness not to run plays for the best matchup - no, that's just an Ime staple which he's shown game after game, after game, after game to be incapable of doing.

You don’t need a Fred or any other pg to do that - Technically, you don't. You sure as hell need a coach to know what they're doing though offensively. Which is something Houston doesn't have.

 

They shot 46% from 3 as a team, shooting was hardly the problem... .....their Defense is really bad now.

I agree, setting up cuts and layups but it is not why they lost.

• They won a few games with Fred being injured last year also, that should not have been the problem, Defense is.
• Ime lost his defensive mojo with them big lineups trying to be cute.
• Tari has been horrendous, Okogie has done well but is mostly a 1 way player, not much spark off the bench either.
• Competent opponent benches would run us out of the building now.

 

He played him 20 mins Ime gave Reed a fair shot. Last game he played Reed 27 mins.

Like what do you need from Ime? You want him to keep giving Reed 30 mins a night even as he keeps ******** the bed?

 

Duncan Robinson owned Jabari tonight.

 

Reed is hardly the only reason that the whole team is seemingly giving the opponent 115-125 points a game.

Also giving up layups galore and 3 pointers in the process.

Guys like Jabari regressed on Perimeter D.

 

They shot a high percentage from 3 but not a high volume from 3. 45% from 3 is great but they only shot 10 of 22 vs Detroit shooting 16 of 39 so thats still 18 pt advantage for Detroit.

 

He is bad at defense and is the lowest plus minus 2x more than the next lowest. Other players played bad too but not as bad as him.

What is your proof he wasnt the reason we only lost by 1 pt last game and 4 pts this game. Its a loss by margins if Reed wasnt so bad we would have won.

 

Agreed with your post... just asking your ceiling for this year's outcome?

I think Fred's injury the instant it happened deemed this year a complete waste due to KD. Rockets are championship or bust right now. They will be entertaining, and win 55 games, and CF will be the ceiling, and 2nd round is more likely. The West is stacked. per usual. We had a healthy Harden-Kawhi lose first round last year - same team probably favored against anything East, sans healthy Boston.

The lack of depth at PG makes Fred almost as valuable as KD - and Fred was awesome against the Warriors too.

 

Meh just growing pains…

 

Reality is that Stone sucks and always has.

 

Wow this one was even worse, though the referees made sure it was ugly. Sengun with dribbling into traffic hoping to get a foul called on like 5 occasions was the most pathetic of it all. Ausar outplaying Amen was also wild. KD was great, Okogie was a monster and should start, Adams amazing and Jabari & Reed had their moments on defense for the former and offense for the latter. But clearly this team is going nowhere and people were very generous with saying we’re just below contenders.

This team should be lucky to win 50 games. We can gel more sure, but Ime is a clueless offensive coach who gets into petty stuff with refs, cannot call plays at the end of games and since Stone & Tilman have made him basically the sole decision maker - dumbest decision ever since he was the type of defender who couldn’t buy a basket and thus does not value shotmaking - we’re in trouble. The lack of shot making and dribbling is staggering, bottom 5 in the league. Pair that with questionable 3pt defense, same issue last year where we give up wide open shots to good shooters and you have serious hurdles to overcome.

Back to the drawing board.

 

Very fair assessment. Missing DB badly, maybe even more than Fred.

 

great points. Have to acknowledge the point about the rebounding. In the first game we didn’t press our size advantage inside. In game 2 we got out-rebounded despite the size advantage. I believe this was more about hustle and physicality than anything else. Again, what’s the point of a jumbo lineup if you aren’t gonna put the other team in a blender down low or dominate 2nd chance points?

 

This is why we lost.

Look at Jabari Smith playing defense last night.

You thought Reed Sheppard was bad.