For just the second time in his NBA career, Alperen Sengun broke 40 points as the Rockets held off the Utah Jazz on Friday night, 125-118 (box score).
Sengun finished with a game-high 43 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 assists while making 17-of-24 shots (70.8%) and 8-of-12 from the free-throw line (66.7%). That scoring total was just two short of his career high.
“We needed him,” Fred VanVleet said of the Turkish big man. “We needed every point. We needed every rebound, every assist he had. He carried us, start to finish. Incredible performance.”
“I wanted to go to the rim every time,” Sengun said. “I was just in attack mode and felt good all day. I came to play.”
The win wrapped up a perfect 3-0 homestand for the Rockets, who are now 10-3 on the 2026-27
regular season. Utah fell to 1-12. Houston improved to 1-1 in Emirates NBA Cup 2026 group-stage play, while the Jazz are 0-2.
Other individual standouts included:
- Darryn Peterson (Jazz): 28 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals; 9-of-20 shooting (45.0%), 4-of-11 on 3-pointers (46.7%), 6-of-7 on free throws (85.7%)
- Keyonte George (Jazz): 27 points, 7 assists; 8-of-18 shooting (44.4%), 4-of-7 on 3-pointers (57.1%), 7-of-8 on free throws (87.5%)
- Kevin Durant: 22 points, 6 assists; 5-of-14 shooting (35.7%), 2-of-4 on 3-pointers (50.0%), 10-of-10 on free throws
- Fred VanVleet: 17 points, 3 assists; 6-of-11 shooting (54.5%), 3-of-6 on 3-pointers (50.0%)
- Tari Eason: 14 points, 11 rebounds; 6-of-13 shooting (46.2%), 2-of-5 on 3-pointers (40.0%)
- Amen Thompson: 12 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists; 4-of-8 shooting (50.0%), 4-of-5 on free throws (80.0%)
- Bogdan Bogdanovic: 11 points, 3 assists in 12 minutes; 3-of-4 on 3-pointers (75.0%)
Marcus Smart missed Friday’s game due to the start of a three-game suspension, and the absence of his usual defensive impact was clearly felt versus George and Peterson.
“This was not a good performance by us tonight,” VanVleet said. “Give Utah some credit. They brought some juice and some energy, and they were kind of playing carefree. As you can tell, they’ve got more talent than their record shows. We didn’t really answer the test, but we did enough to win.”
With their homestand at Toyota Center complete, next up for the Rockets is a four-game road trip, which starts Sunday night at Washington (4-9).
Tipoff of Rockets-Wizards is at 6:00 p.m. Central, and the game will be televised and streamed via Space City Home Network (SCHN) and NBA League Pass.
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: ‘Attack mode’: Alperen Sengun breaks 40 as Rockets (10-3) hold off Jazz
