The Rockets were made this morning with a new victory. The Texan team prevailed at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento by 112-118 in a repeat of the match that both teams played on Friday, although on that occasion the duel fell on the side of the locals. This time, however, those of Gentry have not been able to impose themselves again, adding another stumbling block that continues to prevent them from finishing sneaking into the positions that give access to the play-in.
Stephen Silas’s men started the match much more involved, signing a partial start of 0-13 and leading by 16 points in the first bars, but the Kings quickly recovered and managed to take the pulse of the clash with the passing of the minutes. However, although they managed to take the lead on several occasions, they never managed to forge a significant difference, and the Rockets always found a way to regain the lead and reach the advantage in the final minutes. In these, Sacramento tried to turn the situation around again, but Houston was able to find answers with which to stay ahead and close its 13th win.
Eric Gordon, who finished the clash with 15 points, was in charge of sentencing him with the action that made it 112-116 with 12 seconds to go. The guard was defended by Metu in a change of assignment, which allowed him to take advantage of his greater speed to attack the rim and add a relatively comfortable basket that gave his team enough advantage to breathe relief.
Gordon was one of the five Rockets men in double figures in scoring, a facet in which Kevin Porter Jr. and Christian Wood led the team with 23 points respectively, to which the center added 14 rebounds. Jalen Green also finished with 15, while Garrison Matthews led the second unit with 17 thanks to his 4/6 3-point shooting.
Precisely Matthews was the protagonist of another of the key actions, in this case the one that resulted in the expulsion of De’Aaron Fox. The point guard tried to block the shooting guard in a counterattack, but he mistimed his attempt and ended up dealing a hard blow that knocked Garrison down and caused him to be sanctioned with a type 2 flagrant foul. The Kings player therefore had to head to the locker room with just over 8 minutes to play, forcing Gentry’s men to finish the game without his star.
Buddy Hield, who finished with 27 points, assumed the leadership of the team, followed by the 17 points added by Terence Davis and the 16 of the rookie David Mitchell. However, these numbers did not serve to win the bottom of the Western Conference, a type of stumble that Californians should not allow if they want to try to end their streak of 15 years without being in the postseason.
(Cover photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
