The Rockets got back on the winning track on Friday night with a 110-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were playing without Anthony Edwards. Kevin Durant had a season-high 39 points to lead
the way for the Rockets. Durant was 11-for-18 from the field, 6-for-8 from deep, and evem showed off some of his playmaking chops with 7 assists to go along with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block. He did have 5 turnovers, however.
Houston also got a double-double from Alperen Sengun. He finished with 25 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, while shooting 11-for-22 from the field. He also seems to finally be feeling better, as he was back to doing Alpie-like things.
The only other two Rockets in double figures were Amen Thompson, who finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists on 5-for-12 from the floor, while Reed Sheppard woke back up a bit, also finishing with 14 points. He was 5-for-9 from the field and 4-for-6 from three, though he’s still struggling getting minutes out of Ime Udoka, finishing with just 19 minutes of court time. As a comparison, Josh Okogie had 1 point on0-for-4 shooting, and he still played 33 minutes. Jabari Smith Jr. continued struggle, hitting just 3-for-12 from the field, he still played 38 minutes. Reed just can’t get any love, even when he’s playing relatively well.
Outside of Reed, Houston got just 8 more total points from its bench, with Dorian Finney-Smith throwing up another stinker with 0 points in 16 minutes.
The Rockets sat Steven Adams and only played Clint Capela 12 total minutes, so the Rockets actually lost the rebound battle in this one, but they shot 46 percent and were 12-for-28 from deep, so perhaps the offense is waking up a little bit.
The Wolves were led by Julius Randle with 39 points, and Naz Reid had 25 off of the bench, while Rudy Gobert had a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double along with 2 blocks, despite being put in a blender by Sengun.
The Rockets now move to 24-15 on the season and are in the five seed, three games back of the second seed. They’ll be back in action on Sunday versus the New Orleans Pelicans.
