Rockets-Hornets Recap: Houston Drops Second Straight Contest, 102-94

Two games into Rockets red, Kevin Martin and Houston’s NBA team have dropped two straight contests.

But you can’t blame Martin for the Rockets’ latest mishaps.

Regardless of retooling and reigniting a Houston team in desperate need of a scoring charge, the Rockets fell to New Orleans on the road in a 102-94 loss.

“I feel that even though we lost that game, there’s a lot of positive things that we learned about the different pieces that we have,” Houston head coach Rick Adelman told Rockets.com staff writer Jason Friedman. “We just have to get it together. We have a tough week coming up. We have pieces that we didn't have before. We just have to come together as a team and understand what the strengths are of each guy and get it turned around.”

Chase Budinger led the Rockets in scoring (18 PTS, 8 AST, 2 BLK), while numerous teammates chipped in with double-digit scoring including Aaron Brooks (15 PTS, 8 AST, 2 STL), Martin (13 PTS, 3 AST, 1 STL), Luis Scola (12 PTS, 11 REB) and Jared Jeffries (11 PTS, 9 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL).

“It’s like starting over,” Budinger said of the team chemistry. “We have new faces on the team and we are just trying to get used to one another. We haven’t really had any practices yet. The next few days are going to be very important for us to run through our stuff, to get used to one another and start learning each other. That’s all you can do.”

Houston’s Rockets return to the hardwood on Wednesday evening, Feb. 24, when they face the Orlando Magic at Toyota Center.

“I thought offensively we were very impatient,” Adelman said. “We were playing with two or three guys and the other guys were standing. We weren’t moving the ball to the other side and making them move. When we’re playing this small lineup, you really have to have good ball movement.

“You shouldn’t be doing isolation unless it’s quick hitting. You’ve got to find other people. They’re going to stop the first option, but you’ve got to look for the next one and we didn’t do that at all in the first half. We missed a lot of shots. We were very impatient, again. That’s the biggest thing with the changes we have.”

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