Houston Rockets star Fred VanVleet has backed teammate Jalen Green after a tough Game 4 against the Golden State Warriors.
Jalen Green has struggled in both road games against the Golden State Warriors, and this has been critical to their 3-1 series deficit.
Green managed just 8 points in Game 4, after 9 in Game 3. This came after an inspirational 38 points to lead a Game 2 win.
With home advantage in Game 5, the Houston Rockets are looking to reset and bounce back, and they know they must learn from this setback.
The Warriors did enough to clinch a 109-106 win, helped by a big 26-point game from Brandin Podziemski.
Houston Rockets star Fred VanVleet spoke in his postgame press conference and was asked what the team must do to help Jalen Green in Game 5.
VanVleet said the Rockets must simplify the game for his teammate to allow him to play more freely and do more damage to the Warriors.
“Physicality. Spacing. Giving them easier lanes to read and try to give them simpler things that can slow down the game for him so he’s not thinking as much so he can just be in attack mode.
“We’ve got to do better jobs of screening for him and opening up the floor for him and giving him some space to get downhill.
“But again, he’s going to bounce back. I’ve got no doubt in my mind. We need him confident and strong and positive, and he’s got a big game coming Game 5.”
Fred VanVleet was asked a further question about Jalen Green and responded to say he did not want to full focus to be on his young teammate, playing his first ever playoff series.
And despite scoring 25 points himself, VanVleet believes he has some areas he can improve on too.
“He’ll be alright. I’m not really that worried about it. I don’t want to, you know, make it all about him.
“I’m more concerned about what I can do better.”
VanVleet added that he is ‘proud’ of how far Green has come already in his career, and determined to help him out.
“We need him to be playing at his best and at a high level and he takes our team to a different gear. So we’ll look at the film and see how we can help him be more effective.”
“Defenses are going to do what they do to try to take guys out of the game. That’s part of the playoffs, and we’ve got to counter that.”
Jalen Green averaged 21.0 points per game during the regular season. His average for the playoffs is 18.0 ppg – but this does not reflect the up and down nature of his series, where he has failed to hit double digits in three out of four games.
The Warriors tasked Jonathan Kuminga with helping to slow down Green in Game 3, while Jimmy Butler’s return lifted the team to an even higher level.
While the Rockets have two of the remaining three games at home, the Warriors are now heavily favored to progress, leading the series 3-1.
