Houston Whips Denver, 128-108; Tie Season and Keep Winning Ways
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 16 Jan 2025
Fully exploiting the absence of Nikola Jokic, the Houston Rockets routed the Denver Nuggets, 128-108 on the road to tie their season matchup at two wins each while continuing their winning ways.
After a competitive first quarter that ended at 28-23 in their favor, the Rockets started to pull away from Denver when they held the Nuggets without a basket for two minutes transforming a 40-32 lead to their first big lead at 50-34 following a 10-2 attack. The Rockets stretched this margin to 69-42 by the end of the first half as the Nuggets struggled without their main big man and scorer, Jokic.
Veteran centers DeAndre Jordan and Dario Saric tried to fill in and they were good for a combined 12 rebounds 5 points and 4 assists, areas Jokic usually produces triple doubles especially in scoring and assists and where Jordan both had zilch.
The Nuggets tried to rally in the third quarter through the combined efforts of Jamal Murray, Michael Porter and Russell Westbrook. But the Rockets merely equaled their 33 points production in the period through Jalen Green, Cam Whitnore and Amen Thompson with tall Turkish center Alperen Sengun, also making his presence felt on both ends.
Denver barely outscored Houston in the final quarter, 27-26 accounting for the final score as Julian Strawther and Payton Watson came off the bench to help the Nuggets to no avail.
Green continued as the Rockets main scorer as he led the attack with night high 34 points. Sengun dominated the paint scoring 20 points while pulling down 9 rebounds and issuing 8 assists. Fred Van Fleet and Whitmore contributed 16 points each while Thompson was good for 11 points and 9 rebounds.
Christian Braun and Murray topped for the Nuggets with 22 points each. Westbrook tossed in 17 points and Strawther and Watson added 10 points each. Porter could only score 8 points.
The win upped the Rockets record to 27-12 heading to the second half of the season. More importantly, the victory kept Houston at second in the West, 6 games behind the streaking OKC Thunder (33-6).
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
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