As expected, half-Rockets fall to Nuggets

Sorry for the late recap guys. I’m in the eastern time zone, it was late, and the Houston Rockets never challenged the Denver Nuggets, so I went to bed after the game rather than stay up until 2AM writing about an uneventful loss for a 15-46 team that had half of its lineup on the sidelines.

With top MVP candidate (in my mind anyway) Nikola Jokic in the house and leading the way, the Rockets fell behind early, as expected, falling behind by 22 at halftime. And while the Nuggets took their foot off the gas in the second half, allowing the Rockets to make the final score a respectable 129-116 final, the outcome was never in doubt.

Leading the scoring was Denver’s Michael Porter Jr., who went off for a career-high 39 points, while Jokic pitched in 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 12 assists on 10-14 shooting from the field to spark the Nuggets.

The Rockets, meanwhile, had a plethora of players in double figures, as they only had seven guys who saw the court. Leading the way in scoring was D.J. Wilson (bet you never expected to hear that this season) with 25 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals on 10-17 shooting, and he played a whopping 40 minutes of court time, which interestingly enough, wasn’t even the highest minutes total of the game for Houston.

That honor went to Armoni Brooks, who played a game-high 43 minutes. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as hot as he has been, going for 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists on just 4-12 shooting.

KJ Martin played 42 minutes, finishing with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals while shooting 7-12 from the floor, and Kelly Olynyk finished with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists.

Houston also got 21 points off the bench from Anthony Lamb, who shot 8-14 from the field, and Jae’Sean Tate, who was battling an ankle injury and played just 21 minutes, finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals on the night.

The Rockets even got 29 minutes out of Daquan Jefferies tonight, who they claimed off of waiver earlier this month. He finished with just 5 points, however.

Not much else to report from this game. It went mostly as expected. And I’ll be crossing my fingers for John Wall and Jae’Sean Tate to both be healthy this week. I snagged a first-round bye in the fantasy playoffs, so I’ll be starting my title hunt in round two tomorrow.

That’s pretty much what this Rockets season has become, at least until it’s time to start talking draft and free agency.