Houston Rockets: 3 takeaways from 2017-18 season opener
3. Defensive lapses
The Rockets brought in two very good wing defenders in P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute this summer, joining Trevor Ariza to form very competent and versatile defensive play for the team.
However, during last night’s win there were several instances in which the Rockets lost some of the Warriors’ shooters. This happened frequently in transition, which the team will have to work on over time.
HOU transition D has been their undoing. In the halfcourt they've been solid. Harden no idea if it was him on Klay there on that 3.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) October 18, 2017
The Rockets were fairly good in their half-court defense, but when the Warriors ran in transition Houston got lost fairly easily — something you can’t do against the Warriors and their endless array of shooters when Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala are able to play the whole game.
The Warriors had 36 fastbreak points in the game, compared to just 15 for the Rockets. The Warriors are an extremely disciplined team with strong defensive communication, so they are able to effectively limit teams in transition.
Communicating effectively on defense in transition is something that the Rockets will work on and improve at over the course of the season. It was nice to see that their half-court defense was good for the most part (the Warriors can make any defense look bad), so when Houston improves in transition, they should very well become an above-average defense.
The nice thing for the Rockets is that unlike last season, they actually have numerous quality defenders. Paul, Tucker, Mbah a Moute, Ariza and Clint Capela would all (for the most part) be considered above-average defenders, so they definitely have the personnel for a good defense this season.