Houston Rockets fall to Blazers and drop under .500 again – Player Grades

For the second time in 5 days the Houston Rockets lost to the Portland Trail Blazers which drops them under .500. Here’s the player grades from the Rockets final game prior to the All-Star break.

From the beginning the Rockets and the Blazers provided fans with a very close contested game featuring two evenly matched teams. Oddly enough the game’s first quarter was noteworthy for the Rockets due to the fact that until Corey Brewer’s three at the buzzer, all 26 points had been scored by either Dwight Howard or James Harden.

The duo’s usage rate kept increasing as the game progressed and in fact they both ended up with good performances. The problem was that no one else on the Rockets team came even remotely close to having what we would consider a respectful game. While the Blazers had 6 players in double figures, the Rockets had 2.

In the end the Houston Rockets 20 plus turnovers and lack of defensive awareness was probably too much and the Oregon side earned the home win despite great performances by Houston’s star duo. The Rockets drop back under .500 again and are out of the playoff picture, something that will likely force GM Daryl Morey’s hand prior to next Thursday at 3 PM. (not that he wasn’t planning on making some changes prior to the loss).

Rockets Player Grades

Best Reserve

Best Opponent:

Next: Trade Deadline Countdown: Pablo Prigioni Back to Rockets?

With the trade deadline around the corner make sure you visit Space City Scoop daily for our trade series. Each day SCS will feature an article on who the Rockets should trade for or what it would take to part ways with the players currently on the roster. Finally we’ll assess the Rockets and each team in the Association in terms of what their needs are, if they should be buyers or sellers and also speculate on who would be the ideal trade target.