Rockets' Jalen Green makes honest admission on first taste of playoff basketball
04/24/2025 03:23 AM
Jalen Green is in the fourth season of his career, and he finally made the playoffs after years of toiling near the bottom of the standings with the Houston Rockets. Green, the second overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft, remains one of the key pieces of this young Rockets team. After all, when he’s locked in offensively, the Rockets are tough to stop — as evidenced by how Green led his team to a 109-94 victory in Game 2 of their series against the Golden State Warriors to even things up at 1-1.
Green put up 38 points on 13-25 shooting on Wednesday night, and he scorched the nets from beyond the arc, making eight of his 18 three-point attempts. This was quite the bounce-back from the 23-year-old Rockets guard after he built a house with the bricks he threw up in Game 1, when the Warriors held him down to just seven points on 3-15 shooting this past Sunday.
After the Rockets’ Game 2 victory, Green admitted that the moment became too overwhelming for him in his playoff debut.
“That first game, the lights were bright, the court looked huge. I couldn’t really get a chance to settle in, my legs were a little shaky. That’s part of it. [But] I feel like I did a good job of answering back,” Green said in his postgame presser, via NBA TV on X (formerly Twitter).
"The lights were bright… the court looked huge"
Jalen Green on his first #NBAPlayoffs game on Sunday pic.twitter.com/Qz3PcfHa5U
— NBA TV (@NBATV) April 24, 2025
Of course, playoff basketball is different to the kind of basketball that Green has been accustomed to thus far in his career. Every possession matters in the playoffs, especially in a series where the two teams don’t have much separating them, and the postseason can definitely expose which player isn’t built for the moment.
Green, of course, showed in the Rockets’ Game 2 win that he just needed a bit of time to sort out his legs from underneath him before thriving in the grand postseason stage.
Rockets display a bit of finesse in gritty Game 2 win vs. Warriors
Jalen Green might be the Rockets’ win condition in their first-round series against the Warriors. They notably struggle with scoring in the halfcourt, but Green can unlock so many things on offense for Houston if his shot is falling.
Green’s shot was butter on Wednesday night, as he made eight triples, being just the third player in Rockets franchise history to make at least that many treys in a single playoff game. And with the other Rockets nailing the dirty work, Green’s finesse and shot-making was very much welcome as they evened up the series.
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