Rockets extend winning streak to six in statement victory over NBA champion Nuggets

For the previous 3 seasons, many of the NBA would believe a November travel to Houston to be a unfastened win. The Rockets had the NBA’s worst file in each the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, and, closing season, progressed handiest to the second-worst slot. But after 3 years of tanking, the Rockets had in the end had sufficient. They went into this season making plans to win, and, thus far, they have got succeeded.

Led through new trainer Ime Udoka and free-agent additions Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, the 6-3 Rockets have climbed up to the No. 4 slot in the Western Conference. Before this season, they hadn’t held a top-four seed in the West for a unmarried calendar day since Aug. 14, 2020. If Sunday used to be any indication, even though, this group plans to get comfy atop the standings and keep there for relatively awhile.

The protecting champion Denver Nuggets got here to Houston with the NBA’s very best file on Sunday at 8-1. The Rockets hadn’t crushed the Nuggets in a sport in which Denver used to be taking part in for exact stakes since January 2020. But those are not the Rockets of the previous a number of years. In most likely their largest sport since buying and selling James Harden, the Rockets defeated the Nuggets, 107-104. 

It used to be their 6th immediately victory after beginning the season 0-3, and the brand new faces led the way in which on each side of the ball. VanVleet’s 26 issues led the Rockets, whilst Brooks spearheaded a protection that held Denver to its second-fewest issues of the season. A 23-point, eight-rebound, five-assist day out from Alperen Sengun, who has called Nuggets middle Nikola Jokic his “basketball idol,” in the long run proved sufficient to triumph over a livid Denver comeback strive in the overall 5 mins.

It’s too early to say the place the Rockets in the long run end this season, however they did not earn their 6th win till their twenty second sport closing season. If not anything else, the disorganized mess of a basketball group that wasn’t even making an attempt to win over the closing a number of years is now long gone. The Rockets can beat any person in their present state, and Sunday’s victory over the protecting champion proves it.