Rockets pour in franchise record 28 3-pointers in blowout win.
48-point first quarter fueled by long-range barrage solves slow starts, leads to team-record 28 3-pointers
The Rockets had reached the point that if someone sank a heave from 80 feet, they would find a way to say it went in because of their defense.
That would have been a challenge on Monday night. Somewhere about the time they were matching the NBA record for 3-pointers in an opening quarter, putting up another 48-point quarter or chasing the franchise record for 3s, offense seemed to have earned its due.
The Rockets sank a franchise-record 28 3-pointers and led by as much as 35 before coasting in with a 136-106 rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena, pushing their winning streak to six games with a second blowout in three games in which no one had to play more than 28 minutes.
The Rockets’ 11 first-quarter 3s matched the NBA record for an opening quarter. With that, they led 73-54 at halftime after their third 70-point half in the past five games. They had not topped 55 in any of their previ
ous seven games.
They slowed down for a while, but when DeMarcus Cousins hit consecutive 3s midway through the fourth quarter, the franchise record of 27 3-pointers and NBA record of 29 was in sight with five minutes to add to the total.
Cousins added another 3-pointer with 3:07 left. The honors for the franchise record had gone to Michael CarterWilliams in December 2018.
Ben McLemore tied the franchise record with 2:25 remaining. Cousins broke it with 1:45 left, sinking his fifth of the night.
Cousins, however, missed a pair and Danuel House Jr. missed one more before the Rockets dribbled out the clock one 3-pointer shy of the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA record set in December.
The usual scorers did their part along the way, with Eric Gordon sinking 4 of 6 3-poitners to score 25 points in 22 minutes. John Wall was 4 of 5 from deep, scoring 18 points. Christian Wood knocked down two of his three 3-pointers and had 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The rout, however, seemed certain long before the Rockets chased records.
After spending parts of three days talking about getting off to better starts, having to mount comebacks to undo the early damage of their previous two games, the Rockets matched Saturday’s second-quarter blitz against the Pelicans and moved it up a bit.
The Rockets had scored more than 48 points in a quarter twice in franchise history. They went for 48 in a quarter in a second consecutive game Monday, this time not wasting any time getting to it. After sinking nine 3-pointers in the second quarter in New Orleans, they put in 11 on 14 attempts in the opening quarter in Oklahoma City.
They did it after a slow first three minutes when they made 1 of 5 shots, a 3-pointer Wall put in, before they would drain 16 of 21 shots the rest of the quarter.
Wall continued to roll through the half, scoring 16 points in 16 minutes with five rebounds and four assists. But he got help from each of the usual sources with Wood, Oladipo and Gordon combining for 39 in the first half.
The Rockets pushed their lead to as much as 26 when Jae-Sean Tate opened the second quarter with a layup, and they still led by 25 midway through the second quarter. But the Thunder recovered a bit, mostly by attacking the basket to finish layups and draw fouls. A 15-5 run cut the deficit to 15 before the Rockets ended the half with a brief flurry to take a 73-54 lead into the second half.
It could have been more, but they had done what they set out to accomplish, escaping their first-quarter troubles. They just didn’t make matching that first quarter in the second a part of their to-do list.
It did not matter. By then, the Rockets’ greatest challenge seemed to be paying attention. When Gordon returned to drive them through another run, they pushed the lead to 31 late in the third quarter. The roll was interrupted by Hamidou Diallo hitting a 3 in front of a noisy Rockets bench, holding his pose as if he had finished off the NBA Finals, adding a few words as he cut the lead to 28.
The Rockets went back to their mission of resting the starters and chasing lines in the record book.