The Houston Rockets have been back to their winning ways lately, and that continued on New Year’s Day with a 120-96 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. The Rockets were lifted by some red hot shooting, hitting 57 percent of their shots as a team and 41 percent of their threes. The offensive attack was led by Amen Thompson, who finished with 23 points on 10-for-12 shooting from the field and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. He also added 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block.
In fact, all five Rockets
starters finished with double-digit scoring. Kevin Durant finished with 22 points on 8-for-15 shooting, but probably the biggest development was that he also finished with 11 assists. Durant isn’t exactly an elite facilitator, but if the Rockets can get that kind of assist production from KD with any type of regularity, they’re going to be hard to beat.
Alperen Sengun also returned to the lineup, and he finished with 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting with 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Tari Eason also pitched in 15 points and 9 boards on 6-for-7 from the field, and Jabari Smith rebounded from a slow start to put in 14 points, 6 boards, a steal and a block.
The Rockets also got 14 points off of the bench from Reed Sheppard, who was basically Houston’s entire second unit. The rest of the team combined for just 12 total bench points. Dorian Finney-Smith still looks like he hasn’t played basketball in months, and the Rockets are going to need him to round into form.
As for the Nets, Houston held them to 45 percent shooting as a team, and they were led by Cam Thomas, who came off of the bench for 21 points.
The Rockets have now won four in a row to move to 21-10 on the year, and they return to action on Saturday with a match against the cross-state rival Dallas Mavericks.
