The Houston Rockets have to shoot better from 3 to win series

One of the biggest issues in the loss in Game 1 yesterday afternoon was the lack of shooting ability by the Houston Rockets. They have to be able to knock down shots more frequently if they want to win the series.

The Houston Rockets dropped their first game of the series against the Golden State Warriors yesterday in Oakland in disappointing fashion. It was a competitive (but ugly) game from start to finish and it had many fans, including us, complaining about the way it was officiated in favor of the Warriors.

Away from the officiating, though, there are many things the Rockets could have done to avoid losing. One of these is the poor shooting performance by the team. If they are going to beat a team of this caliber, then you have to shoot much better from deep.

Poor 3-point shooting

Shooting a low percentage from downtown is something the Rockets have become accustomed to in the postseason, unfortunately. The results from Game 7 are still very evident as Houston started off horribly from the 3-point line.

While James Harden and Eric Gordon hit some huge shots down the stretch, it still starts with their performances, unfortunately. The two combined to shoot just 8/29 from deep, easily the top-two in attempts during the game.

The Rockets as a whole shot 14/47 or just 29.8% from 3. That’s way too low of a number and part of the reason why the team scored just 100 points overall. They did so many things right, especially on defense, but the offense has to get going if they want to win this series.

Fouled on 3-point attempts?

Now for the controversial part. While the last 3-point attempt by James Harden was the most debatable of the calls (or no-calls, rather) against Houston in this game, there were some fairly blatant issues with the officiating that is well-recorded. Take a look at three examples from the first half:

Harden was not happy about these close-outs by Klay + CP3 and Mike D'Antoni get techs after a no-call. ? pic.twitter.com/p1hKXw1DsC

— House of Highlights (@HoHighlights) April 28, 2019

Yeah, we were upset during the game, to be fair. These no-calls were outrageous, especially with how the NBA has done a pretty decent job of getting them right in recent years. It’s dangerous for the player shooting to not have the landing space and could get Harden or Paul seriously injured.

The Rockets have apparently compiled a report to show the league the bias towards the Warriors in officiating. It will be interesting to see the backlash/changes that get made in Game 2, if any, because of it.