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After Monday's Game 4 loss at Golden State the Rockets now trail their best-of-seven, first-round playoff series against the Warriors by a 3-1 margin. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Houston, and the home team's only chance of advancing to the second round of the 2025 NBA playoffs is to win three straight games.
So, despite a 52-30 record in the regular season and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, it's becoming highly likely that Houston's postseason run will end in the first round.
What's frustrating for the team is that it didn't have to be this way. In both their Game 3 and Game 4 losses at San Francisco's Chase Center, the Rockets let fourth-quarter leads slip away. In a Game 1 loss at home, the Rockets were within a possession.
In all three of those, the Rockets shot below 62% from the free-throw line. The grim statistics are as follows:
The Rockets missed 12 free throws in Game 4 while Warriors star Jimmy Butler went a perfect 12-of-12, including five makes in the game's final minute to secure the win. For the series, Golden State has made 78.3% of its free throws — a significant edge over Houston's 63.1% clip.
"It's not good enough in a one possession game," head coach Ime Udoka said. "If you're going to make the mistakes we are, it'd be good to cash those in and give us a little margin for error."
It's not that free-throw shooting is a strength for the Rockets. For the 2024-25 regular season, they ranked dead last among the NBA's 30 teams in accuracy. Yet, even while in last place, that 73.9% accuracy figure could have flipped a pivotal result or two in this series.
"It feels like the games we've lost, we really hurt ourselves in a lot of ways," Udoka said after Game 4. "It's hard to outplay those mistakes. It's all the things that add up."
Game 5 tips off at 6:30 p.m. Central on Wednesday, and the Rockets will need to win it to keep their season alive. Making more free throws would help.
More: Game 4: Jimmy Butler returns from injury to lead Warriors into 3-1 series lead on Rockets
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: For Rockets, playoff free throws versus Warriors are anything but free
Continue reading...
So, despite a 52-30 record in the regular season and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, it's becoming highly likely that Houston's postseason run will end in the first round.
What's frustrating for the team is that it didn't have to be this way. In both their Game 3 and Game 4 losses at San Francisco's Chase Center, the Rockets let fourth-quarter leads slip away. In a Game 1 loss at home, the Rockets were within a possession.
In all three of those, the Rockets shot below 62% from the free-throw line. The grim statistics are as follows:
- Game 1 loss: 11-of-20 on free throws (55.0%)
- Game 2 win: 16-of-20 on free throws (80.0%)
- Game 3 loss: 14-of-24 on free throws (58.3%)
- Game 4 loss: 19-of-31 on free throws (61.3%)
- Overall series: 60-of-95 on free throws (63.1%)
The Rockets missed 12 free throws in Game 4 while Warriors star Jimmy Butler went a perfect 12-of-12, including five makes in the game's final minute to secure the win. For the series, Golden State has made 78.3% of its free throws — a significant edge over Houston's 63.1% clip.
"It's not good enough in a one possession game," head coach Ime Udoka said. "If you're going to make the mistakes we are, it'd be good to cash those in and give us a little margin for error."
It's not that free-throw shooting is a strength for the Rockets. For the 2024-25 regular season, they ranked dead last among the NBA's 30 teams in accuracy. Yet, even while in last place, that 73.9% accuracy figure could have flipped a pivotal result or two in this series.
"It feels like the games we've lost, we really hurt ourselves in a lot of ways," Udoka said after Game 4. "It's hard to outplay those mistakes. It's all the things that add up."
Game 5 tips off at 6:30 p.m. Central on Wednesday, and the Rockets will need to win it to keep their season alive. Making more free throws would help.
More: Game 4: Jimmy Butler returns from injury to lead Warriors into 3-1 series lead on Rockets
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: For Rockets, playoff free throws versus Warriors are anything but free
Continue reading...
