How can the Rockets turn the corner? Defeat their opponents with a tall lineup and give young people room to grow.

Translator's Note: The original article was published on CBSSports. The data in the article are as of the time of publication of the original article (November 10, local time). The dates and times involved are all local time. The opinions expressed in this article have nothing to do with the translator or the platform.

Everything has two sides. Fred VanVleet suffered a torn cruciate ligament before playing a game and was retired for the season. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Rockets. The Rockets were already short-handed when it came to handling the ball and creating shots, not to mention losing VanVleet deprived them of a capable scorer and a veteran.

But this unfortunate turn also forced the Rockets to make adjustments. Maybe they don't have a clear traditional point guard, which certainly complicates things, but head coach Ime Uduka sees this as an opportunity. Shortly before the start of the season, he pointed to the Rockets' significant height advantage as a potential strength, and suggested that on certain nights they could further enhance their "bullying" style of play -- handing the ball to the 6-foot-7 players. In the hands of the super athletic Amen Thompson, he is paired with Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperon Shenjing and Steven Adams. The last four players are all 6 feet 11 inches (approximately 2.11 meters) tall.

Recently, the Rockets chose to let 6-foot-4-inch (approximately 1.93 meters) Josh Okogie start in place of Adams, thereby acquiring a more comprehensive perimeter defender. (These two lineups are their only five-man lineup to play more than 40 minutes.) But with Adams, 6-foot-8 Tari Eason and 6-foot-10 Clint Capela on the bench, the Rockets have a lot of tall and defensively intimidating players to use against opponents. Just five years after the undersized Rockets team, the team's lineup has become taller across the board.

While twin-tower lineups are becoming more and more popular in the NBA, the Rockets utilize their tall lineups better than most teams. The Rockets have won five of their last six games, including Sunday's victory over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in Milwaukee, where they had lost six straight. The Rockets' team-building ideas this season have always been very simple, and Uduka summed it up well after defeating the Bucks.

"If we can make shots and get offensive rebounds," he said, "we can wear them down."

And they did. In a league that values ​​three-point shooting, the Rockets have chosen the opposite path from nearly every other team. They average 29.3 three-point attempts per game, ranking last in the league (but ranking first in three-point field goal percentage). The lack of long-range shots didn't slow down their offense; instead, they let all these post players attack the glass. The Rockets rank first in the league in offensive rebounds and second-chance points, and second in free throws per game. As Uduka succinctly puts it, they wear down their opponents. This unique model allowed the Rockets to achieve the somewhat surprising offensive efficiency of the league. Coupled with their eighth-best defensive efficiency in the league, this gives the Rockets the third-highest net rating in the league.

After winning against the Bucks, Uduka praised Kevin Durant and Alperon Shenging by name, saying that they performed particularly efficiently. Durant scored 31 points (shooting 73.3%) and 7 assists, while Shen Jing contributed 23 points (shooting 66.7%), 11 rebounds and 7 assists. It's much easier to play big when one of your two post players is an all-time great and the other is a center who can perform like this in front of Giannis.

Like everyone else, Durant was full of praise for that play in his postgame interview. So far this season, Shen Jing's average points, assists, steals, three-point shooting percentage and free throw shooting percentage have all reached career highs. Durant, meanwhile, is the team's leading scorer and fills the role of finisher the team sorely lacked last season.

For the Rockets, the early-season results are generally positive, but this does not mean that there are no problems with the Rockets' style of play. The high-and-high strategy worked most of the time, but it also left the Rockets prone to turnovers without a reliable point guard. Uduka said protecting the ball has been their focus all season, but in this case, emphasis for emphasis, execution is another matter.

The Rockets average an astonishing 17.6 turnovers per game, and only the Wizards are worse than them. This causes problems for them, as it did in their loss to the Spurs over the weekend. In that game, the Rockets made 23 turnovers, of which Durant contributed 8 times. After the game, Durant called the team's carelessness in handling the ball "contagious." (Durant, Shen Jing and Thompson averaged a combined 9.4 turnovers per game, which is an astonishing number.) So far, the Rockets have been able to overcome the problem of sloppy play, but this deserves continued attention.

"We lost our point guard," Shen Jing said on Sunday. "Now everyone is trying to assume this role. Amen and Durant are both trying to share organizational tasks. As a newly formed team, we will get better and better at this. If we want to win, we must protect the ball."

Mistakes are the inevitable result of the team's lineup and style of play. In the absence of VanVleet, the Rockets activated the "point guard Amen" mode. When Thompson drives to the basket with the ball, he's powerful.

But this is very demanding for a young player, and Thompson has a heavy task on the offensive end, not to mention that he usually has to bear the most difficult defensive tasks. Another backcourt option is Reed Shepard, who at 6-foot-2 is the shortest player in the rotation.. After a slow start to the season, he has performed much better in the last two games - especially against the Bucks, where his aggressive defense and accurate shooting were the keys to the Rockets overcoming a double-digit deficit in the second half and achieving a comeback. Despite Thompson's talent, this is still only his third season, while Shepard is only now getting more consistent rotation time after not being reused during his rookie season. In other words, the pair is learning as they go.

"Not everything is going to be perfect," VanVleet said recently when asked about the pairing. "We don't want to be perfect in October and November. We want to be good at the end of the season. I think we just played with some aggression, some fire and a little bit of fight. Obviously Amen has been being himself. He's trying to play multiple roles and do a lot of different things. . This will be a gradual process. They are both diligent in studying the game and are two of the hardest-working players I know. "

There is a lot to praise about Thompson and Shepard, but it may be more reasonable if the Rockets can strengthen the backcourt before the trade deadline. As VanVleet said, the Rockets are still figuring this out, but maybe getting both players comfortable now will prepare them later, when the Rockets (and the rest of the star-studded Western Conference) hope to make a push for the playoffs. But for a team that is still working out some minor issues, the Rockets at least know their positioning and style of play, and know that this style of play is effective.