Alperen Sengun's 27 and 17 leads the Rockets over the Wizards

POSTED: November 12, 2024 -- 9:15 a.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets defeated the very, very young Washington Wizards 107-92 Monday night. Rockets' center Alperen Sengun schooled Wizards' rookie center Alexandre Sarr all game. Sengun finished the game with 27 points and 17 rebounds. Sarr finished the game with 5 points.

Sengun's 27 points and 17 rebounds is his second straight double-double and his eighth of the season.

"We felt we had an advantage," Ime Udoka, Rockets Head Coach said of the Sengun-Sarr match-up. "And, it was obviously working there."

Houston (7-4) struggled to put away the Wizards (2-7) until Sengun took matters into his own hands in the fourth quarter. After the Wizards cut an 84-69 Rockets' lead to six (86-80), Sengun scored 11 straight points during an 11-5 spurt to boost Houston's lead to 97-85 4:28 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Amen Thompson scored a layup to end Sengun's scoring run; however, Sengun followed with another layup to cap his 13 points in the fourth period.

"It's a luxury," Coach Udoka said of having Sengun as a go-to low-post scoring option. "I talked about last year - having Alperen to always dump it in and kind of slow it down a little bit."

Sengun's stellar fourth quarter helped the Rockets overcome a sputtering performance by the offense.

With veteran point guard Fred VanVleet inactive due to "left hamstring soreness", the Rockets' offense managed just one assist in the first quarter and only 4 assists in the first half. Houston finished the game with a season-low 13 assists and only 5 made three-point shots (out of a season-low 22 three-point attempts).

"Just a little slow at times, stagnant at times," Coach Udoka said of the offense. "It felt like the ball was sticking - especially in the first half."

Houston also committed a season-high 21 turnovers. The last time Houston won a game with 5 or fewer three-point field goals made was at Denver on March 18, 2017 and the last time the Rockets won a game with 5 or fewer three-point field goals made and fewer than 15 assists was at Memphis on November 25, 2013.

NOTES:

The Rockets outscored the Wizards 60-38 in points in the paint. Houston scored 60+ points in the paint in three of the past five games after not doing so in any of the first six games of the season.

Amen Thompson made his first start of the season and had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and 4 steals. The last Rocket to have posted those numbers in a single game was James Harden (43/12/6/4) at Utah on February 2, 2019.

NEXT:

The Rockets' next game is Wednesday, November 13, at home, against the LA Clippers. Tip is set for 7 p.m. Central Time. Wednesday's match-up is the first of 2 straight home games against the Clippers.

Support The HRR

CLICK HERE for The HRR's Rockets' write-ups.