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The Rockets made easy work of the New Orleans Pelicans, winning by a score of 114-91 at Toyota Center Saturday night.
The victory marked the 59th win for the Rockets this season, an accomplishment that no other Rockets team has achieved before. This is not the first first for the Rockets this season, and it certainly won’t be the last. The Rockets also achieved the feat in dominant fashion as they led the Pelicans by double digits for majority of the game.
The Pelicans played their sixth game in eight nights and the Rockets took advantage of their opponent’s fatigue. Houston stormed out of the gates with a 13-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back. The lead ballooned to 27 at halftime and it was clear as day that the Rockets were going to take this one.
Despite a lackluster third quarter, the lead never dipped into single digits and the Rockets were able to pick it back up and close the fourth quarter by resting James Harden. Despite not playing the fourth quarter, Harden had a Harden-esque night. 27 points and eight assists showed up in the box score for Harden and he led the team carrying the load with Chris Paul and Luc Mbah a Moute out with injuries tonight. Someone who stepped up in a major way for Houston was Clint Capela, who scored 18 points, grabbed 16 boards and blocked six shots, a career-high.
As a team, the Rockets shot 48.4 percent from the floor and sunk 18 shots from beyond the arc. In retrospect, nobody had an off night, which made the win tonight look effortless for the Rockets.
For the Pelicans, Anthony Davis naturally led the way with 25 points and eight boards. Unfortunately for New Orleans, the team is experiencing a rough stretch in the schedule and the team has caught the injury bug. That was extremely apparent tonight. The team shot 40 percent from the floor and made just six threes.
Tonight’s win was the eighth straight victory for the Rockets. The team will now look to become the first team in the league to reach 60 wins in a rare home-and-home back-to-back as they face the tanking Hawks tomorrow night. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. CT.