Rockets Bow to Kings, 113-103, Suffer First Season Sweep
Swept Away. No Sabonis, No Problem. Hitting the Road.
For the first time in months, Houston was fully healthy entering their Saturday night matchup with the Kings. Sacramento’s star Domantas Sabonis even went down with a hamstring injury in the first minute of the game. Yet none of this mattered, as the Rockets eventually fell the Kings, 113-103, in disappointing fashion at Toyota Center. The loss closes out Houston’s three game home-stand with a whimper, as the Rockets now fall to 37-23 in the standings, still good for fifth place in the ultra competitive Western Conference. With this being the final matchup between these squads, Sacramento now becomes the first team to sweep Houston all season, as the Rockets dropped all three games to the Kings this season.
Alperen Sengun paced Houston with 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. Jalen Green added 24 points, and Tari Eason chipped in 14 points, but the Rockets didn’t get much offensive production outside of those three guys. Fred VanVleet showed signs of rust in his return, connecting on only one of his eight shot attempts during the game. DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points and Zach LaVine added 20 points to lead a balanced offensive attack from Sacramento. Houston’s defense allowed at least six different Kings players to score a dozen points. Besides scoring 38 points in the second quarter, the Rockets offense was quiet, not surpassing 23 points in any other quarters.
With their latest defeat, the Rockets are now 5-7 over their last twelve games, and slowly sinking down the standings. Houston has a tough three game road trip coming up next on the schedule. If the Rockets can’t get back on the winning track, the squad may find themselves slipping into a dangerous Play-In position. Houston has one of its toughest back-to-backs of the season, as the Rockets will play in OKC against the West-leading Thunder on Monday night, before playing the rising Pacers in Indianapolis on Tuesday evening. They’ll close out the road trip with a trip to the Big Easy for a Thursday night tilt against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Houston has also lost six straight road games as they prepare to play three straight away from Toyota Center. Hopefully the squad can regain the success they had earlier in this campaign, or the Rockets could be preparing for an earlier playoff exit than they anticipated after their solid first half to the season.