NBA 2018-19: 3 Talking points from Dallas Maverick's win over the Houston Rockets
Today's game was a fight between two teams who started the season in the same way - Dallas went 2-7 through nine games and Houston went 1-5 through 6 games. However, Dallas' prodigy Luka Doncic found his groove, and now Dallas sits at 13-11, good for eighth in the playoff standings while the Rockets have cratered to 11-14, second from the Suns who are 4-22 and one game away from the 12-14 San Antonio Spurs.
Luka is gunning for the ROY award, and he displayed that against the Rockets, going on an 11-0 run in the last minutes of the game to seal the victory for the now 13-11 Mavericks. Here are three talking points about the game.
#3 Rockets are hurting themselves
Chris Paul isn't worried. He has reiterated that multiple times over the past few games, saying the season is 82 games long and the Rockets will figure it out. But with losses racking up more than wins, is it time to say, "Houston, we have a problem"?
Harden did nothing to satiate his detractors when he went 0-4 from behind the arc in the last quarter. The reigning MVP of an offense dictated on making threes should not have this sort of game when the team is below .500. He did finish with 35 points and 8 assists, as did Chris Paul, but Houston will need to figure out its problems sooner rather than later, and it could be time to press the panic button in this ruthless Western conference.
In clutch situations, the Rockets have made just 36.9 percent of their shots, ranking 28th in the league, and 21.6 percent of their threes, to rank 28th.
The Rockets had all the momentum going in the fourth as Doncic's foul on Nene gave the Rockets an eight-point lead. However, Luka responded to a cold shooting night by giving Dallas a three-point lead through a clutch run (more on that ahead). The Rockets ran out of energy halfway through, and two minutes of a European's brilliance gave Dallas a three-point lead that they would not relinquish. Rockets drop to 11-14 in the Western Conference.