Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green lifted Houston to victory.
The Houston Rockets used big second and third quarter runs and 23 points from Alperen Sengun and 22 from Jalen Green to down the Dallas Mavericks 110-99 and get back to winning after a brief two-game losing streak.
The Rockets were down in the game before using a 32-12 run spanning the end of the second and beginning of the third quarters to take total control of the contest and cruise to the victory. The Mavs were without Luka Doncic and Naji Marshall, while the Rockets played without Tari Eason and Amen Thompson.
Sengun also pitched in 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals on 9-for-16 shooting, while Green added 5 rebounds on 9-for-21 from the floor. Other top Rockets contributors were Dillon Brooks with 19 points and 6 boards, Jabari Smith Jr. had 12 points, 2 boards, 2 steals and a block, while Cam Whitmore had another good game off the bench, scoring 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the floor and 3-for-4 shooting from deep in just 24 minutes of action. Here’s all of his made shots from BR.
The vaunted Rockets defense did struggle a bit in this one. Despite giving up under 100 points, Dallas shot 53 percent from the field and 40 percent from three, but Houston did force 20 turnovers, which is where they made their bread and butter, scoring 22 points off of those turnovers.
Dallas was led by Quentin Grimes with 17 off of the bench and 16 each from Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson. Jaden Hardy also had 11 off of the bench for Dallas to round out their double-digit scorers.
The Rockets will return to action on Friday, when they have a huge matchup with Eastern Conference power Boston Celtics, who also just happen to be head coach Ime Udoka’s former team. This one will be a good gauge to see where the Rockets are.