The Houston Rockets were one of the early surprises of the NBA season. Despite starting the year without Fred VanVleet, they came out swinging-offensively dynamic, confident, and playing with a swagger that had fans and analysts alike taking notice.
But lately? That early momentum has hit a wall.
The Rockets have dropped four of their last five games, and it’s the offense-once their calling card-that’s gone ice cold.
Losses to the Trail Blazers and Kings were tough enough, but a blowout at the hands of the Thunder really raised eyebrows. Not just because of the score, but because of how flat Houston looked. Now sitting at 23-15 and clinging to sixth place in the Western Conference, the Rockets are suddenly feeling the heat from teams like the Warriors, Blazers, and Suns creeping up behind them.
At the center of this slide is Alperen Sengun. The Turkish big man was a revelation to start the season, drawing “Mini Jokic” comparisons thanks to his blend of scoring, passing, and floor-spacing.
But recently, that version of Sengun has been missing. His scoring average has dipped from around 24 points per game in October to just 17 in January-a steep drop for a player who had been the engine of Houston’s offense.
And it hasn’t gone unnoticed. On a recent episode of NBA on ESPN, Kendrick Perkins didn’t hold back, saying the Rockets don’t just need Sengun to be good-they need him to be elite.
“I got to look at Alperen Sengun,” Perkins said. “The Rockets don’t need All-Star Sengun.
They need All-NBA Sengun. And that’s what we were seeing at the beginning of the season.
He was averaging damn near 30.”
Perkins also pointed to Sengun’s recent matchup with Chet Holmgren as a wake-up call. In that game, Holmgren clearly got the better of the one-on-one battle, and it showed. Sengun struggled to assert himself, and Perkins called him out for failing to capitalize on the matchup.
“Small ball. It’s you and Chet.
Mano a mano. You’ve got to be able to capitalize on that.
Not flopping for a foul. Chet outplayed him last night,” Perkins said.
“Sengun has to elevate his game even more.”
It’s not all on Sengun, of course. Through the first 30 games of the season, Houston’s offense was ranked in the top five league-wide.
Over their last 10? They’ve plummeted into the bottom five.
That’s a massive swing, and it speaks to a team that’s lost its rhythm, its spacing, and maybe even its confidence.
On the same ESPN broadcast, Brian Windhorst raised a key question: Is this just a midseason slump, or are we seeing the real Rockets? January can be a strange month in the NBA-teams hit fatigue, scouting reports get sharper, and the shine of early-season success starts to wear off. The Knicks, Lakers, and now the Rockets have all hit rough patches.
The encouraging part for Houston is that there’s still time. The season’s long, and the Western Conference is a grind.
Every team goes through adversity-it’s how they respond that defines them. But this stretch has exposed some cracks.
The Rockets’ offensive execution has slowed, their defensive effort has been inconsistent, and their young core is being tested in ways it wasn’t earlier in the year.
This doesn’t feel like a meltdown. It feels like a moment.
A fork in the road. Young teams often hit a wall, and the ones that grow are the ones that figure out how to push through it.
Houston doesn’t need to reinvent itself, but it does need to rediscover what made it dangerous-especially when games get physical, when possessions get tighter, and when opponents start to smell blood.
If Sengun can rise to the moment and the offense can find its groove again, this could just be a growing pain-a necessary step in the evolution of a young team learning how to win when it’s not easy. But if they can’t respond? The West won’t be waiting around for them to figure it out.