Two straight wins, this one in easy fashion
When you got guys playing Rock Paper Scissors to determine who enters the game, odds are you’re winning big time. For Houston, that was exactly the case and more, just a good old fashioned one sided win. Holding the lead quite literally the entire game, the Rockets came out to hoop, playing what was their most complete game of the season on both ends of the floor. Led by Fred VanVleet who played 25 minutes, going 10-11 from the field in route to dropping 21 points, Houston took a decisive 127-100 victory at home.
Also helped out by the play of Alperen Sengun who had 16-5-5, Jalen Green who had 21 (6-14 from the field), and Tari Eason with 12 points, the Rockets had all around great production. Jock Landale also came out the gate hot, getting himself nine points in just eight minutes of play before slowing down in the second half. But, putting up 60+ points in both halves is nothing to take lightly, and truly showed how good this Houston offense can be when they’re hitting their shots. Shooting a collective 54-96 (56.3%) from the field and 10-27 (37.0%) from deep, efficiency was a key to the victory, and a heavy advantage over the visiting Spurs. The post was where it lied at though, with a 66-46 advantage in that column for the Rockets.
However, the Houston Rockets thrived on defense in this one as well, only allowing 86 points by the Spurs before the third string bench unit entered the game in the fourth quarter. The tone was set early on in the game though with the first half being the best defensive half from Houston all year long, keeping San Antonio under 40 points. Apart of the reason for this was due to the surprisingly well defense by both Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun along with of course, Tari Eason. Forcing Victor Wembanyama out of the post and making him take jumpshots proved to be the right strategy all night long, not letting the last year ROTY to get any momentum going.
Forcing 20 turnovers and scoring 20 points off of them, Houston brought grit and hustle to this one, not taking their foot off the gas once. Sitting at 5-3 on the year now, coming off of back to back wins, the Rockets look to carry that momentum on the road Friday when they face the 7-1 OKC Thunder. A big game there, but more importantly, a big win against the divisional rival San Antonio Spurs tonight. We’ll be back Friday with our usual coverage here on DreamShake, so don’t forget to tune back in!