Jabari Smith Jr. scored a season-high 28 points and Alperen Sengun recorded his fifth career triple-double as the Houston Rockets capped a sweep of back-to-back home games against the Los Angeles Clippers with a 125-104 victory on Friday.
The contest was the opener of the NBA Cup group stage for both teams.
Smith shot 11-for-17 from the floor and drilled a career-high-tying five 3-pointers, all in the first half. He grabbed 11 rebounds to pace the Rockets, who led wire-to-wire en route to their sixth win in seven games.
Sengun posted 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his first triple-double this season. Fred VanVleet notched 18 points and 10 assists while Dillon Brooks and Tari Eason scored 17 points apiece. Amen Thompson added 12 points for the Rockets, who led by as many as 28.
Los Angeles’ James Harden scored a team-high 21 points and matched Ray Allen for second place in NBA history in career 3-pointers. Harden’s third trey of the game, with 2:21 left in the first quarter, was the 2,973rd of his career. He miss four more attempts the rest of the game.
Kevin Porter Jr. added 15 points off the Los Angeles bench, while starter Kris Dunn scored 13 but missed 6 of 7 3-point attempts. The Clippers, third in the NBA with a 39.1 percent success rate from behind the arc, finished 10 of 40 from deep.
After starting 5-for-5 from behind the arc on Wednesday at Houston, the Clippers missed their opening four long-range attempts on Friday before Harden beat the shot-clock buzzer with a trey to pull the Clippers to within 14-7.
After Thompson converted a Clippers turnover into a driving layup, the Rockets led 21-9.
The Clippers rallied in the second quarter, taking advantage of a Rockets lull to close to within 31-30 on a Porter 3-pointer at the 8:27 mark. The Rockets then called timeout and responded with the decisive run, a 20-2 blitz that featured consecutive treys from Smith and Brooks before Smith capped the surge with back-to-back 3-pointers.
Houston closed the first half 11-for-21 from behind the arc and led 66-46 at the break after VanVleet followed his 3-pointer with a nifty scoop shot on a rim attack.
The Clippers opened the second half with a 12-4 spurt, but the Rockets responded with a 9-0 run that included Brooks’ corner 3-pointer and a Smith second-chance basket.
