HOUSTON, TEXAS – APRIL 20: Alperen Sengun #28 and Jabari Smith Jr. #10 of the Houston Rockets celebrate a basket against the Golden State Warriors during the fourth quarter in Game One of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center on April 20, 2025 in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
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The Rockets went just 3-2 last week during the softest stretch of their schedule to date, beating the Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, and Phoenix Suns, but losing to the Jazz on the second half of a back to back, and losing to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, playing without centers Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams. With the two losses, the Rockets squandered the opportunity to create distance between themselves and the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets for positioning for the second seed in the Western Conference. With the loss, the Rockets fell to fourth in the West at 15-6. The Nuggets sit at 17-6 while the Lakers sit at 16-6. The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to create distance between themselves and the pack of teams behind them, now at 22-1 after winning their last fourteen games.
In a strange quirk in the schedule, the Rockets don’t play again until they face the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday at Toyota Center in their only game of the week. The Clippers are a team in turmoil at just 6-18 after entering the season with title hopes.
Despite the losses, the Rockets are still second in the league in net rating at +10.8 and second in the league in defensive rating at 110.7. After holding the best offense in NBA history for a few weeks, they have now fallen to fourth in offensive rating at 121.4, behind Denver, Boston, and New York.
Houston has major help on the way in the coming weeks in the form of the expected returns of forwards Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith. Eason is out following an oblique injury while Finney-Smith has yet to appear in a game this season for the Rockets following offseason ankle surgery. Finney-Smith signed a four-year, $53 million contract this offseason and was expected to play a major role for Houston in its starting lineup.
The return of both players will come as a major shot in the arm for a Rockets team that relies on its size and physicality to wear down opponents. Both players are defensive stalwarts and elite marksmen from long distance. Finney-Smith has shot roughly 40% from long distance over the past few years while Eason was shooting over 45%, and leading the league, to start the year. Adding them to the rotation will give Rockets head coach Ime Udoka all sorts of options.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rahathuq/2025/12/07/rockets-fall-to-mavs-without-sengun-and-adams/
