The Houston Rockets finally had displayed signs of consistency that seemed to validate their standing as a contender in the West, with an eight-game winning streak confirming as much.
One result likely won’t change that perspective, but the Rockets’ defensive effort against the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday opened the door to criticism. Despite Minnesota missing three key members of its rotation, the Rockets lost 136-132 in their penultimate game prior to Sunday’s regular-season finale on Sunday against the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.
The Timberwolves shot a robust 57.3%, made 15 of 30 3-pointers and had seven players score in double figures. The Rockets (51-30) were unable to slow the Timberwolves inside or out.
“Not good enough,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We had strung together some consistent basketball outside of a few quarters here and there. (Friday), it just felt like open gym with both teams going back and forth, scoring too easy. We don’t want to be in a shootout every night.
“We feel if we’re scoring, we should be able to put up some resistance on the other end.”
The Rockets shot 60.9% and outrebounded Minnesota 39-25 to become the third team since 1975-76 to lose a game while shooting 60% with a plus-10 rebounding differential. Amen Thompson scored a career-high 41 points on 17-of-22 shooting while Kevin Durant added 33 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Durant surpassed 2,000 points on the season, becoming the oldest player in NBA history (37 years, 193 days) to accomplish that feat.
Thompson (2,953) and Durant (2,840) top the league in minutes played. With the Rockets locked into the fifth seed for the Western Conference playoffs, the odds are high that both will rest on Sunday. Jabari Smith Jr. ranks fourth in the NBA with 2,705 minutes.
“That’ll be determined based on seeding and anything else that can happen,” Udoka said. “We’ll figure that out.”
Houston opens the playoffs on the road against either the Los Angeles Lakers or Denver Nuggets.
The Grizzlies (25-56) had just six players available for their 147-101 road loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday. That marked Memphis’ seventh consecutive defeat and 20th in the last 22 games.
Dariq Whitehead (21 points) and Toby Okani (20 points) posted career highs for the Grizzlies while Adama Bal chipped in 18 points.
With 14 players on the injured list — and half of that total out for the season — Lucas Williamson (13 points, 13 rebounds, four steals) and Jahmai Mashack (13 points, 15 rebounds, 14 assists, 10 turnovers) played all 48 minutes against the Jazz. Okani logged 42 minutes while Rayan Rupert played 40 minutes off the bench.
“Guys gave everything they had, but you could see they were extremely fatigued after having already played heavy minutes against the Cavs and Denver,” Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “We have one more game left and hopefully have enough guys to compete in that one.”
