For a third consecutive game, the young Houston Rockets led well into the second half, on the road against a perceived Western Conference contender. But for a third straight time, they couldn’t close it out, and they’re now 1-8 on the season with seven consecutive losses.
After taking a 94-89 lead into the final two minutes, Aaron Gordon connected on back-to-back 3-pointers as the host Denver Nuggets (5-4) rallied to Saturday’s 95-94 victory (box score). Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic collected a game-high 28 points and 14 rebounds.
Daniel Theis (18 points, 66.7% FG) led the Rockets in scoring and hit a big 3-pointer to put his team up by 5 points with 2:46 left. Unfortunately, that was the last point that Houston would score. Jae’Sean Tate had his last-second attempt at a potential winning shot blocked by Jokic.
“We needed this,” Theis said in a deflated postgame interview. “We worked so hard, and we still end up losing.”
See below for highlights from Saturday’s game, and read on for our assessment of individual Houston performances. Grades are limited to players who had clear rotation minutes, since anything less wouldn’t represent a sufficient enough sample to evaluate. Grades are also decided relative to a player’s average performance — in other words, the standard for Christian Wood is higher than for David Nwaba.
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