HOUSTON — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the first player to emerge in the hallway after the halftime buzzer, visibly disappointed as he headed for the locker room.
Not long after him, third-year forward Jalen Williams led the conglomerate of Oklahoma City Thunder players and coaches, none of whom uttered a word. Alex Caruso clapped enthusiastically, perhaps hoping to lift his teammates’ spirits, but the overwhelming silence was deafening.
It was an unusual sight for Oklahoma City (64-13), winners of eleven straight games before Friday’s 125-111 loss to the Houston Rockets and a team that looked in control of its destiny, having lost just twice since the All-Star break. But Houston, which clinched a playoff berth earlier this week, has seemingly flipped a switch ahead of its first trip to the postseason in four years and is eager to send a message to the rest of the NBA.
The Thunder led for all of 44 seconds, with the Rockets enjoying a comfortable wire-to-wire victory. Jalen Green topped all scorers with 34 points on 11-of-24 shooting, and Alperen Şengün added 31 points of his own on 11-of-21 shooting. Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s leading scorer, finished the evening with 22 points on 22 shots. With the win, Houston strengthened its hold on the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and secured home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
“We’ve been harping on that since (the last) 20 games,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Just to sharpen up towards the end of the season in a lot of ways. You want to play your best going into the playoffs and stay healthy, and those two things have been the case. It’s a luxury of having the depth we have but also understanding what’s to come.
“Four quality opponents coming up, we want to play good basketball and tighten up, start getting a playoff feel.”
Make no mistake, the Rockets, who have the NBA’s toughest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon, are treating the final five games of the regular season as a litmus test. And seeing as each team Houston will face between now and the end of the season is a Western Conference playoff team, these games are more than just for seeding purposes.
“Depending on the importance of the game, you might keep (the schematics) vanilla,” Udoka said. “But if it’s a must-win and you have to do things like tonight to take them out of some things they had success against us recently, you start to use those things. Having two practices gave us a chance to walk over a lot of things and go over their game plan.
“We threw more at them. That’s what it’s going to look like in the playoffs. Very specific about plays, personnel and we did that tonight.”
In Houston’s fifth and final meeting with Oklahoma City, it was important to neutralize the physicality advantage they typically enjoy. Dillon Brooks, who had picked up his 16th technical foul of the season, was suspended. But instead of Udoka slotting Tari Eason or Jabari Smith Jr. into the lineup, he went with reserve center Steven Adams.
The decision to go with Adams over other options seemed like a wrench in the Thunder’s game planning, especially from the opening tip. Less than two minutes into the game, coach Mark Daigneault called a timeout, with his players confused about what was happening on the floor.
The pairing of Adams and Şengün has yet to become a high-volume approach — just 130 minutes together before Friday night — but Udoka’s insistence on bucking the spacing trend has paid off in dividends. The Rockets are a whopping +33 in their minutes together this season.
“It brings physicality, obviously,” Udoka added. “I think that was one of our most physical games from the start. Loved the aggressiveness and attention to detail on the game plan. They do a good job with pounding the glass, getting the second opportunities and more of what they’ve been doing. Any chance we get to deploy it, it’s favorable for us.”
Adams’ presence in the starting lineup — and a large reason why the dual-big combination has worked thus far — is because of his physicality, which reveals itself at both ends of the floor. Offensively, Adams’ proficiency around the glass is well-documented with 12 rebounds (six were offensive) against Oklahoma City. Defensively, Adams’ quickness is underrated, even at age 31 with a lengthy injury history.
According to NBA.com tracking data, opponents are shooting 59.7 percent on shots within six feet of the rim when Adams is the nearest defender. That’s nearly a five percent difference from when he’s off the floor. (Şengün fares similarly, with opponents shooting 59.2 percent.)
https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2025/04/04235708/1-4.mp4
Friday night was a reminder of why the Rockets present themselves as a dark horse ahead of the postseason. They can swarm defensively, like sending a myriad of looks at Gilgeous-Alexander, and they also have the athleticism to punish teams in the open floor (they won the transition battle 19 to 8).
“It shows when we’re on point, we pay attention to the details and we play hard. We’re one of the best teams in the NBA,” Green said. “If we do this consistently and play hard, hit shots, it’s pretty hard to guard. … These are the teams we’re about to play, so we got to be sharp.”
(Photo of Jalen Green: Erik Williams / Imagn Images)
