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VanVleet was 2 for 13 from 3-point range on a
night Houston made just 6 of 29 3-pointers and was 11 for 20 on
free throws.
“It was an offensively poor showing,” coach Ime Udoka said. “The
defense was good enough but we’re not going to overreact to that
game. It was some of those guys first time and we had our
chances.”
The second-seeded Rockets, who returned to the playoffs for the
first time since 2020, had three players in their starting
lineup and two reserves making their playoff debuts Sunday. Of
those young players in the postseason for the first time, the
only one to play well was Alperen Sengun, who led the team with
26 points and nine rebounds.
Despite the poor shooting, Houston managed to get within four
points with about 2 1/2 minutes left on a 3 by VanVleet. But he
missed two 3s after that and Warriors went on a run to close it
out.
“We can generate better looks,” VanVleet said. “I think our
spacing can get better. We can make more shots, obviously,
myself included — didn’t shoot the ball great tonight.”
The Rockets managed to keep it close late thanks in part to
their offensive rebounding where they had a 22-6 advantage.
They’re encouraged that they were able to get within striking
distance late after falling behind by 23 in the third quarter.
“We’ve just got to clean some things up on the offensive end and
it’s definitely encouraging knowing that we were still in the
game despite being down that much,” Jabari Smith said. “We
stayed together and showed some growth tonight.”
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