Reed Sheppard Justifies Fanfare in Losing Effort for Rockets

The calls have been loud all season, but they've become even louder. Especially from those within the Houston Rockets fanbase.

And yours truly. Especially of late. Reed Sheppard needs to start. And more importantly, he needs to be in the closing lineup, finishing games. Especially if he's not going to start.

There's no justification otherwise. There's never been a justification. At least, not this season.

He's gotten comparisons to Hall of Famer and MVP Steve Nash. On a Rockets team devoid of scoring and offensive firepower, it's difficult to justify Sheppard not playing 30 minutes on a nightly basis.

In spite of his flaws and imperfections. Yes, he gets hunted on defense, at times. Which will draw the attention of coach Ime Udoka, who emphasizes maximum effort and execution on that end.

In Thursday's game against the Golden State Warriors, Sheppard's offensive arsenal on full display. As was his microwave ability.

Sheppard had 30 points off the bench, which led the team in scoring. Sheppard went 12-of-19 from the field and 6-of-12 from distance.

The second-year guard also poured in six assists, which was second on the team, behind only Alperen Sengun.

Sheppard went 5-of-8 from the field in the first half, forcing Udoka to turn to him for significant minutes early on. All told, Sheppard played 16 minutes in the first half.

On the season, he averages a hair under 26 minutes. Well, 25 minutes, to be exact.

On the night, Sheppard played 37 minutes and had the fourth-most minutes on the Rockets. Udoka essentially played him for the entirety of the fourth quarter.

Which is exactly what fans have been wanting to see. And he provided a brilliant display of why those calls have been so loud.

And what he can do, when given that sort of workload.

Sheppard was hyper-efficient, with 78.9 true shooting marks and 78.9 percent effective field goal percentage.

Even with Sheppard getting targeted and hunted by the Warriors on the defensive end of the floor, his offense more than makes up for it. No one else on the Rockets has his skillset.

At least, not anyone else on this year's roster. The team needs his offensive gravity.

The question is whether Udoka will continue to dole out that amount of opportunity to Sheppard. It's been a bit of a no-brainer for him of late, due to injury.

Many of the guys Udoka trusts have been hindered and/or limited, forcing an uptick in minutes for the Kentucky product. Will that rise in playing time continue when the Rockets are at full strength?

We'll see, but Thursday's game against the Warriors gave a good glimpse of what he can accomplish with more playing time.