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Ramona Shelburne
Multiple Authors
HOUSTON – Much has been made about the players and leadership the Houston Rockets have lost due to injury this season. But with their season on the brink Sunday night, forward Alperen Sengun gathered the team together after morning shootaround and reminded them of all the players and talent they still had.
“I didn’t give up on this series and I just wanted to let everybody know,” Sengun said after scoring 19 points in Houston’s 115-96 win over the Lakers that helped the young Rockets avoid a sweep and send the best-of-seven first-round series back to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Wednesday.
“I’m glad it worked and everybody came out to play today. Hopefully everybody’s mindset has changed going into a fifth game.”
Rockets guard Amen Thompson cited Sengun’s speech with helping the Rockets believe they could come back in the series, despite a devastating loss in Game 3 on Friday in which the team squandered a six-point lead with 30 seconds remaining.
“He was just letting us know he didn’t want to go home,” Thompson said after scoring a team-high 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting. “I was proud of him just taking that leadership role and just pulling us all back in there and being like, ‘This is not how we end it. If we go out, we’re going to go out and fight, but we’re not thinking about going out.'”
Earlier in his NBA career, the Turkish-born Sengun used an interpreter to communicate, but his English has improved enough in recent years that he felt comfortable addressing the team at such a critical juncture.
He also said he feels like this had to be “my team” because of season-ending injuries to point guard Fred VanVleet, center Steven Adams and an ankle injury that has sidelined superstar forward Kevin Durant the past two games.
“I think [Jae’Sean] Tate and me is the only guys left from the rebuild,” Sengun said. “And I think this is my team, so I need to take care of everybody. I’m ready for anything for them. And I know they’re ready for it, too. I will do anything for them. They will do anything for me. So the end of the day, when I know this, I will do anything. Talk, fight, do something and show them. And I’m just glad they hear me.
“After the talk today, Amen was telling me that it really motivated [him]. And then I was like, my English was good? [I] messed up one point. He said, ‘I don’t care. I still understand you.’ So I was happy they understood me.”
Houston coach Ime Udoka showed the team footage of their miscues in the final seconds of Game 3 immediately after so they could confront it and move on as quickly as possible. Of course that’s easier said than done when a young team loses a game like that and spends the next 48 hours hearing about their mistakes and wondering how different things would be if they’d held serve at home, instead of dropping into a 3-0 hole.
“I’m proud of the guys,” Thompson said. “Backs against the wall, coming to perform. We know we can do that all the time. And I feel like today we were making shots. It was the first time we were really making shots and capitalizing on turnovers.”
According to ESPN Insights, this was the Rockets’ first game with 30 points off turnovers since Game 4 of their first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2013.
Houston forced the Lakers into 24 turnovers, resulting in 30 points. Seventeen of those 24 turnovers came off steals by the Rockets, led by Tari Eason’s five steals and three each from Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard and Josh Okogie.
Eason became the first Rockets player to shoot at least 70% in a playoff game with 20 points and 5 steals (since steals first tracked in 1973-74) and first Rockets player with nine steals in a two-game span since James Harden in 2016.
