Player grades from the Rockets’ stumble against the Portland Trail Blazers

The Houston Rockets faltered in a late-game battle against the Portland Trail Blazers, but there were still some positives to take from the game.

Carmelo Anthony’s top-of-the-key 3-pointer proved to be the dagger as the Houston Rockets fell to their knees in defeat at the hands of the Portland Trailblazers 110-102 on Tuesday night.

The loss plunged the Rockets two games behind the Denver Nuggets for fourth place in the Western Conference. They currently own a 42-25 overall record, which is identical to the record of the Utah Jazz, but the Rockets hold the tiebreaker. The Rockets only hold a half-game lead over the sixth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, so their journey is far from over.

Russell Westbrook and James Harden both had games they’d like to forget. The two backcourt superstars combined for 38 points on 12-of-31 shooting from the floor. Harden was extremely limited due to foul trouble, and he spoke about that after the game.

“I couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to be, being in foul trouble, Harden said. “But we had a lot of open shots that if we make those, it’s a different ballgame.”

Coach Mike D’Antoni spoke his piece about how the Rockets started the game and how it set the tone for the rest of the game going forward. “Our biggest problem with the whole game is, first of all, we didn’t come out with a lot of energy, and our defense was pretty slow to start,” D’Antoni said.

Gary Trent Jr, Carmelo Anthony, and Damian Lillard all made huge shots down the stretch to will the Blazers to an eight-point victory over a Rockets team that was still riding high after their Sunday night win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Here are the individual player grades for the Houston Rockets.

Next: The Starters