HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Jock Landale spent last season with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant in Phoenix, two players who he always believed would come through every game, no matter how poorly it might have started. Landale believes Jalen Green is starting to evoke that same confidence.
“A lot of my mentality with those guys last year was make their jobs as easy as possible, and I’ve got that similar thing going on with JG,” Landale said Monday after the Rockets 110-92 win over Portland.
Two nights after scoring 41 points on 15-of-22 shooting, Green struggled in the first half, as the Rockets trailed the lowly Blazers 51-47 in a game they had to win. He finished the game’s first 24 minutes with 8 points on 3-of-12 shooting, and in the past, he might not have been able to recover. That wasn’t the case on Monday.
Green missed his first two shots of the third quarter, but made his next four. He scored 12 points in the period, and ended the game with 27, his sixth consecutive 25-point game.
“He was kind of forcing it a little bit early,” Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said. “He looked a little anxious, and then grinded it away. Started taking the right shots, making the right plays.
“It’s not always gonna come out right from the start on fire, and our team was like that in general, but for him to grind through, he had some big rebounds, big defensive plays, and played the right way. It was huge for him to really come out in the second half like that.”
Six weeks ago, it looked like Green was on his way to getting benched. He was averaging 18 points per game on a career-low 41 percent shooting, 30.7 percent from behind the three-point line when the Rockets hit the All-Star Break with a disappointing loss in Memphis. In 17 games since the break, Green is putting up 24.6 points while connecting on 45.6 percent of his shots, and 39.5 percent of his three-pointers.
“He’s been on a hot streak,” Udoka said. “I think he’s just been playing really well.”
Monday’s win wasn’t just the Rockets ninth in a row, their longest winning streak in five years, it brought them to within a half game of the Warriors for the West’s final play-in spot. A lot of players in Green’s position will play down a playoff race and act like it’s not something they’re thinking about. Not Green.
I'm looking at it every day," he said. "I was watching the Warriors last night. We makin' a push."
Green and the Rockets will be off on Tuesday before Wednesday’s game in Oklahoma City. They could be tied for 10th when that game tips off if the Warriors lose in Miami on Tuesday. Will Green be watching?
"Yeah, for sure. Come on."