As Houston Rockets center Christian Wood walked into the team’s press conference room after Monday night’s game, you could tell he had been through a sports war. The 26-year-old had just completed a two-game stint where he played two of the best centers in the NBA in Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota) and Joel Embiid (Philadelphia).
It is a very tall task, no pun intended, to face both within a week. But playing them on back-to-back nights? Brutal.
It was those two players who set the tone early and often in consecutive games, sending the Rockets to their 10th and 11th losses in their last 12 outings. That type of streak can kill the morale of any team, but Wood believes that there is a silver lining in all the adversity that the team is going through, having gone just 3-15 in its last 18 games.
“We’re still together. I think everybody’s trying to figure out how to win,” Wood said postgame. “With a young team, we are trying to figure out how to get back to winning seven games in a row.”
Houston center Christian Wood on the Rockets playing better on the defensive end of the court:
“We just have to help each other out. One guy has to help the next guy and stop thinking about the missed play.”#Rockets #LightTheFuse #Sarge #ChristianWood pic.twitter.com/iUOzY0NaKK— BIG SARGE MEDIA LLC (@BigSargeSportz) January 11, 2022
The defensive end of the court is where Houston has struggled over the past three games at home. They have allowed an average of 61.3 points in the paint due to miscommunication and players being out of position.
Even though the Rockets (11-31) lost each game by an average of 20.6 points, Wood feels that the team could win each one if they could clean up some of the mental mistakes on the defensive end.
“These games, we can win,” he said. “We can compete with these guys. We’ve seen it before. But we’re really beating ourselves, that’s about it. We just have to help each other out. One guy has to help the next guy and stop thinking about the missed play. We have to pick each other up.”
Houston will play its next five games on the road, starting with the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CST.
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