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In Sunday's playoff opening loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets scored just 85 points at home, and Jalen Green — their leading scorer for the 2024-25 season — had just 7 points on 3-of-15 shooting (20.0%).
In Wednesday's dominant Game 2 victory to tie the first-round series, the fourth-year guard scored a game-high 38 points on better than 50% shooting. The 23-year-old also dished out 6 assists and was tied for a game-high 3 steals.
All of that came against the same opponent, in the same building. So, what changed? In postgame comments, Green admitted to feeling “playoff jitters” in Game 1, which was the first postseason action of his young NBA career. Those jitters presumably went away for Game 2.
“It was more so mindset,” Green said of the turnaround at Toyota Center. “That first game, the lights were bright. The crowd was here. The court looked huge. So yeah, I couldn’t really get a chance to settle in. My legs was a little shaky. But, you know, that’s part of it. Went through it and I feel like I did a good job answering back.”
Green became just the ninth player in NBA history to score at least 38 points in a game within his first two career playoff outings.
Head coach Ime Udoka also praised Green’s defense against the likes of Steph Curry. The Warriors have now scored below 100 points in three consecutive games versus Houston this month.
“He was aggressive on both sides, and we need that from him,” Udoka said.
Saturday's Game 3 from Golden State will be the first road playoff game of Green's career. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. Central, with the game televised exclusively on ABC.
More: Game 2: Jalen Green (38 points, 6 assists) erupts as Rockets tie series versus Warriors
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: ‘Mindset’ change: Jalen Green leads Rockets in dynamic Game 2 win
Continue reading...
In Wednesday's dominant Game 2 victory to tie the first-round series, the fourth-year guard scored a game-high 38 points on better than 50% shooting. The 23-year-old also dished out 6 assists and was tied for a game-high 3 steals.
All of that came against the same opponent, in the same building. So, what changed? In postgame comments, Green admitted to feeling “playoff jitters” in Game 1, which was the first postseason action of his young NBA career. Those jitters presumably went away for Game 2.
“It was more so mindset,” Green said of the turnaround at Toyota Center. “That first game, the lights were bright. The crowd was here. The court looked huge. So yeah, I couldn’t really get a chance to settle in. My legs was a little shaky. But, you know, that’s part of it. Went through it and I feel like I did a good job answering back.”
Green became just the ninth player in NBA history to score at least 38 points in a game within his first two career playoff outings.
Head coach Ime Udoka also praised Green’s defense against the likes of Steph Curry. The Warriors have now scored below 100 points in three consecutive games versus Houston this month.
“He was aggressive on both sides, and we need that from him,” Udoka said.
Saturday's Game 3 from Golden State will be the first road playoff game of Green's career. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. Central, with the game televised exclusively on ABC.
More: Game 2: Jalen Green (38 points, 6 assists) erupts as Rockets tie series versus Warriors
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: ‘Mindset’ change: Jalen Green leads Rockets in dynamic Game 2 win
Continue reading...
