The Rockets forced a Game 7 in their series with the Warriors after a grueling battle in San Francisco. In Game 6, the Rockets came out on top 115-107 and tied the series at 3-3. Hours before Game 7, Alperen Sengun spoke to the media about their elimination game. The Rockets’ All-Star believes the Warriors were not the catalysts for causing a Game 7 in Houston. He believes the Rockets caused problems for themselves in the series instead of the Warriors beating them.
“I don’t think they have beaten us yet. We beat ourselves in this series, missing free throws and easy shots. When we were locked in, we were locked in defensively and offensively. We have all the talent in the world. So there’s no reason for us to lose this game.”, he said to the Rockets media members before the game.
Sengun was trying to highlight the Rockets’ issues on the free-throw line, mainly, but ended up discounting the Warriors’ efforts. The Rockets have been very inefficient at the free-throw line in this series. They were also the team with the lowest free-throw percentage in the regular season as a team. Let’s take a look at how the Rockets have performed at the free-throw line in this series.
How The Warriors Tried To Exploit The Rockets’ Struggles At The Free-Throw Line
In Game 1 of the series, the Rockets lost at home by 10 points (85-95) and missed nine free throws in the game (went 11 of 20 from the line). In Game 2, when they didn’t struggle as much from the line, they managed to come out on top and beat the Warriors by 15 points (94-109).
However, in Game 3 of the series, the Rockets went back to their struggles from the free-throw line. In a game that they lost by 11 points (93-104), the Rockets missed 10 free throws (going 14 of 24 from the line). Seeing the Rockets fail to deliver at the line, the Warriors decided to press on their weakness. Their main target was the Rockets’ big man, Steven Adams.
When the game was neck to neck in the fourth quarter, the Warriors began employing the Hack-a-Shaq strategy on Adams and fouled him intentionally to force him to the free-throw line. Adams averages 53.3% from the free-throw line for his entire career, and in the regular season, he only shot 46.2% from the line. Hence, he became the target of that strategy, which initially forced Ime Udoka to sub him out during Game 3.
This was arguably the moment the game turned around for the Warriors as they were able to reduce the size that the Rockets had on the floor. Since the Rockets did not know how to counter this strategy in Game 3, Adams sat out the rest of the game, and the Warriors were able to benefit from that.
In Game 4 of the series, while the Warriors did not use the Hack-a-‘Adams’ strategy, the Rockets started blundering again at the line. They missed 12 free throws in a game that was decided by a single possession in the Warriors’ favor (106-109). Once again showing how the Rockets shot themselves in the foot multiple times in this series.
Having gone down 3-1 in this series, the Rockets fired back with a strong response in Game 5. They shot efficiently from the line, making 32 of their 38 attempts, and cruised to a 15-point victory at home (131-116). In Game 6, the Warriors resorted to their strategy of targeting Steven Adams once again. He shot 16 free throws in the game and made nine of them. In this process, he managed to become the only player in NBA history to have shot 100% from the field while attempting over 15 free throws, with three blocks and zero turnovers in a single game.
This pattern proves Sengun’s claim that every time the Rockets lost in this series, it was mainly because of their own mistakes instead of a masterclass from the Warriors. Will the struggles at the line plague the Rockets in Game 7? Or will they be able to lock in and not let this series slip away after fighting back from a 3-1 deficit?
