HOUDevelopment𝕏 Beat56m

Natural scorer still finding balance between hunting shots and creating for teammates in pick-and-roll.

“He's a scorer naturally, but a guy that handles quite a bit. And so you need to obviously learn those things, especially when you're playing with really good scorers... he's dynamic in the pick-and-roll. But you have to find that balance of when to look for your shot and when to find the pocket, find the skip pass, getting guys involved. And I think he's still doing that.”

HOUJabari Smith Jr.DevelopmentPresser1d

Smith Jr. is pushing to take more threes and attack closeouts more aggressively.

“I feel like I've made it a point to myself to try to get my three-point volume up and just be more aggressive as far as attacking close-offs and just playing my game.”

HOUGameplanPresser1d

Houston is not crashing the offensive glass as hard as it wants and its transition defense has been poor.

“Our crash rate, when we do crash, it's been really good, but we're not crashing as hard as we want to. And our transition defense has been poor... we want to get more attempts up and too many late shot clock positions already.”

PHXGameplan𝕏 Beat14m

Ott says Phoenix must keep Houston's one-on-one defenders out of the action and win the possession game against their elite rebounding.

“definitely the size, you know, and the way they've been shooting the basketball too. So they have a little bit of everything offensively and defensively. They've been elite so far this year. It's always the glass with them, offensive rebounding. And then defensively they're such great one-on-one on-ball defenders, trying to keep them out of the action the best we can, and then trying to win the possession game because, again, they rebound so well on both ends.”

PHXDevelopment𝕏 Beat14m

Ott credits Fred VanVleet with giving Houston a calming veteran presence.

“A lot. It feels like a lot. Just more of a calming presence, veteran leader, and then an elite three-point shooter. He has to threat every time he's with the basketball and to make the right play or to shoot it. Just kind of settles him down at times. And he's just been through every situation possible. So defensively he's able to hold his own and offensively he's really able to orchestrate.”

PHXDillon Brooks · Miles Bridges · Oso Ighodaro · Jalen Green · Devin BookerNews𝕏 Beat26m

Suns starting five vs. Rockets: Brooks, Bridges, Ighodaro, Green, Booker.

“PHOENIX SUNS vs. HOUSTON ROCKETS STARTING LINEUPS – NOVEMBER 7, 2026”