Rockets being ‘aggressive’ sharers ahead of tilt with Mavericks
As the Houston Rockets ride a four-game winning streak into Saturday's visit to Dallas, the Mavericks look to end a four-game slide.
Houston opened a stretch playing five of six on the road with a 120-96 rout of Brooklyn on Thursday. Amen Thompson's 23 points led six Rockets scoring 14-plus points, with Kevin Durant adding 22 and Alperen Sengun going for 20.
Durant also dished a season-high 11 assists. The 15-time All-Star and 2013-14 Most Valuable Player averages 4.5 assists to go with his five rebounds and team-leading 25.4 points per game as Houston moves into the 2026 portion of its schedule.
He leads a contingent of four Rockets averaging at least 15.8 points, a quartet also featuring Sengun (22.6), Thompson (18) and Jabari Smith Jr. (15.8).
"Everybody's being aggressive sharing the ball as long as we don't turn it over," Houston coach Ime Udoka said. "When teams double (Sengun) and Kevin, if we get to our spots and are very decisive with our actions, we look good."
To that end, Houston is scoring 120.5 points per game, fifth-most in the NBA, while shooting 49.4% as a team, tied for third in the league.
In two previous matchups with Dallas this season, however, the Rockets scored well below their average. They split with a 110-102 win on Nov. 3 in Houston, and lost 122-109 in Dallas last month. Durant scored 27 points and Smith netted 22 in the Dec. 6 game, played with Sengun on the sidelines.
Mavericks big man Anthony Davis went for 29 points and eight rebounds against a Rockets lineup down its starting center. Davis, who has dealt with a variety of injury issues since his trade to Dallas from the Los Angeles Lakers last season, returned to the lineup after a brief absence to score 13 points and grab eight rebounds in the Mavericks' 123-108 loss to Philadelphia on Thursday.
"We'd like for him to take down more shots. He turned down a couple," Dallas coach Jason Kidd said of Davis' 6-of-13 shooting vs. Philadelphia.
The New Year's Day defeat marked the third game in Dallas' four-game losing streak in which the Mavericks surrendered at least 123 points. They rank 20th in the NBA with 117.7 points allowed per game, and the Mavericks give up the most made 2-point field goals of any team in the NBA at 31.7.
Opponents' interior scoring success against Dallas has come with Davis missing 19 of 35 games this season, Dereck Lively II out for the season with a foot injury and Daniel Gafford missing 12 games.
Dallas has both Davis and Gafford in its frontcourt rotation ahead of Saturday's matchup. Gafford put together a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double in a 125-122 loss to Portland on Monday, but he was limited to 11 minutes on Thursday.
The roster flux the Mavericks have faced has required No. 1 overall draft and rookie Cooper Flagg to carry a significant load. His 15.2 field-goal attempts per game are most among players who have appeared in at least half of this season's games, and his 19.2 points per game are second only to Davis' 20.1.