Rockets' surge falls short against Pacers

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports

Another day, another close game, and unfortunately, another tight Rockets' loss to a playoff-caliber opponent.

A series of Houston Rocket pushes were not enough to overcome the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, as the squad lost by a score of 114-107 in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

It was once again another short-handed night for the visiting Rockets, who were already missing Danuel House Jr. and Ben McLemore prior to the team even landing in Indiana. Hours before tip-off, the Rockets would lose another key piece in Christian Wood, the team's second leading scorer, who had been questionable with a sore left knee. David Nwaba and DeMarcus Cousins would be forced to fill in for House and Wood.

Both fill-ins performed more than admirably. Cousins was quiet offensively, with only nine points in 23 minutes, but more than made up for it with 14 rebounds. Nwaba played sterling defense on Victor Oladipo (18 points on 6-20 shooting) while scoring 15 points, which tied for the second-highest on the team for the evening with James Harden.

Harden had an off-night scoring-wise (though he still managed a double-double with 15 points and 12 assists), which left a majority of the scoring up to John Wall. Wall was electric throughout the contest, going for 28 points on 12-20 shooting with six assists, finishing strong around the rim.

Unfortunately, it would be the second game in a row with an opposing player going for a career-high. After the Mavericks' Tim Hardaway Jr. made a career-high eight threes, it would be the Pacers' Malcolm Brogdon going for 35 points against Houston, his highest mark as a professional. The Rockets simply couldn't contain him.

Even so, the team had more than a few chances to win. A one-point game with 3:30 in the third quarter ballooned to a nine point lead less than two minutes later. The Rockets would fight back and trade one-point leads with the Pacers well into dwindling minutes of the game, with the score tied at 105 at just under three minutes to play.

It would be a combination of poor defense and cold offense that would do the Rockets in, as a 9-2 run to close out the game by Indiana would hand Houston their second straight loss.

As has been the case so far in all of the Rockets' losses, there was a big discrepancy in three-point shooting. Indiana shot 39% from three, while Houston only shot under 27%.

Turnovers also played a key role in the loss; Houston had sixteen turnovers total, double the amount of made threes for the evening.

The Rockets fall to 2-4 on the year, and suddenly find themselves with a pivotal stretch of basketball to be played, so long as they don't want to fall behind in the uber-competitive Western Conference. They'll duel the 6-2 Orlando Magic on Friday night and hope to get back in the win column.