Houston Rockets Come Up Short vs. Memphis in Preseason

Pick & roll. Tune into ROOT Sports for second half action. https://t.co/LzK0Ef0igd

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) October 7, 2015

3 Things We Saw:

As mentioned head coach Kevin McHale will utilize the preseason to implement new concepts and schemes as well as experiment with line-up combinations. One such line-up featured all 3 guards (Lawson, Beverley and Harden) on court alongside the 2 centers (Howard, Capela). It offered an interesting 5-some with the versatility of paint protection, shooting, ball handling and intangibles.  The vine above shows a play between Harden and Capela from this line-up:

Terrence Jones who sat out some practices with bruised ribs started the game looking a little rusty, but managed to pull down 8 rebounds and notch 4 points.

Sam @dekker checking in for his #Rockets debut. pic.twitter.com/nnRRi8utdn

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) October 7, 2015

Rookie Sam Dekker got a ton of run  (26 minutes) while Montrezl Harrell didn’t see the court (I was informed via Twitter he is nursing a minor leg injury). Overall Dekker showed what you would expect from a rookie, at times you see his potential offering a solid option to grow into the roster and at others he was easily outplayed especially on the defensive end where his men bodied him off the ball. I liked his tenacity though and can see room for him to grow into his role.

Next: Next?