Rockets 119, Thunder 98: Houston's early burst and deep shooting bury a depleted OKC
Jabari Smith Jr. scored 30 and Marcus Smart hit seven threes as Houston led from the opening minutes and never let the margin fall below 12 after halftime.
The Houston Rockets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 119-98 on Saturday night in Houston, handing the Thunder their second straight loss after a 4-0 start to the season.
A fast start, a brief scare
Houston opened the game with an 18-4 run and pushed the lead to 55-34 on an Amen Thompson tip-in with 6:10 left in the first half, according to the Manila Times game report. Oklahoma City answered by outscoring the Rockets 17-8 over the final six minutes of the half, trimming the gap to 62-51 at the break.
That was as close as it got. Houston opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run, and Smith hit a three that stretched the lead to 19 early in the period. The margin did not fall below 12 for the remainder of the game, per the same report.
The shooting gap
The numbers behind the result were mostly about the perimeter. Houston shot 46% overall and went 18 of 41 from three. Oklahoma City shot 44% but made only 10 of 32 from deep.
Smith led the Rockets with 30 points and nine rebounds, going 10 of 18 from the field and 6 of 12 on threes. Smart added 24 points on 7-of-10 three-point shooting. Kevin Durant scored 14. Alperen Sengun returned from two missed games with lower back soreness and finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander paced the Thunder with 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting. Kenrich Williams and Bennett Stirtz scored 11 apiece, and Isaiah Hartenstein and Jared McCain each had 10.
Two shorthanded rosters
Houston was not at full strength either. Fred VanVleet sat out for right knee injury management, and Reed Sheppard missed his second straight game with low back soreness.
Oklahoma City's absences are the larger story. Chet Holmgren will miss at least two months with a right knee injury, which the team announced the day before the game. Cason Wallace (left shoulder) and Jalen Williams (left ankle) were also unavailable, according to Ponca City Now.
What it means
One game does not rewrite a season, and Oklahoma City's two losses have come with a thinned rotation. But a night in which the Thunder shot 10 of 32 from three while missing several rotation players is a reasonable snapshot of how much they are leaning on Gilgeous-Alexander right now. For Houston, the win came with Sengun back and VanVleet out, and the scoring was spread across Smith, Smart, Durant and Sengun.
Oklahoma City plays at Cleveland on Monday night.