3. Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers, Feb. 6
In the debut of new forward Robert Covington, the Rockets stunned the top-seeded Lakers at Staples Center with a 121-111 victory (box score). Houston finished the game on a 19-5 run in the final six minutes.
Westbrook led the Rockets in scoring with 41 points on 17-of-28 shooting (60.7%), and he also had eight rebounds and five assists.
In accumulating those numbers, Houston’s All-Star point guard made personal history by becoming just the third NBA player in league history to have 20,000 points, 7.000 assists, and 6,000 rebounds for his career.
But it was Covington, who was acquired via trade only a day earlier, who became the biggest story as the undersized Rockets won yet again. The victory improved Houston to 11-1 in games without Clint Capela.
New acquisition Robert Covington buries two clutch triples late in the @HoustonRockets road win! #OneMission pic.twitter.com/lGU4eqSELs
— NBA (@NBA) February 7, 2020
Without as much as a single practice with his new team, Covington scored 14 points off the bench on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range (57.1%), including two dagger 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter. He also had eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks.
The Rockets were +16 in Covington’s 30 minutes, representing the best plus/minus figure of any player on either team. Covington finished the game in Houston’s closing lineup alongside Tucker at center and the usual three guards of Westbrook, Harden, and Gordon.
Despite having some combination of the 6-foot-5 Tucker, 6-foot-7 Covington and 6-foot-6 House playing at power forward and center, Houston only lost the rebounding battle against Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and the much larger Lakers by a 38-37 margin.
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