{"id":495682,"date":"2026-02-24T06:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495682\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:02:12","slug":"smith-scores-31-points-thompson-adds-20-as-rockets-beat-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495682\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith scores 31 points, Thompson adds 20 as Rockets beat Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON \u2014 Jabari Smith Jr. had 31 points and nine rebounds and Amen Thompson scored 20 points as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/houston-rockets\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"houston-rockets\" data-league=\"nba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Houston Rockets<\/a> beat the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/utah-jazz\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"utah-jazz\" data-league=\"nba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Utah Jazz<\/a> 125-105 on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Smith hit his first five shots and matched a career-high with 14 points in the first quarter. He converted 12 of 17 shots overall and made six 3-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson shot 8 for 9 from the field and finished with seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Durant scored 18 points and added a season-high 12 assists. Reed Sheppard scored 15 points off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>With the win, the Rockets (35-21) into third place in the Western Conference, behind Oklahoma City and San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>Despite nine turnovers, Houston used runs of 11-2 and 10-3 to help build a 38-22 lead after a quarter. The Rockets shot 67% from the field and hit eight shots from long distance.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz opened the second quarter on a 13-2 run before Houston responded with an 18-2 outburst over the next six minutes and took a 68-47 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n<p>Houston pushed its lead to as many as 33 points in the second half and never led by fewer than 16.<\/p>\n<p>The Rockets scored 29 fast-break points, one off their season-high, but committed a season-high 27 turnovers, leading to 34 points by the Jazz.<\/p>\n<p>Lauri Markkanen\u2019s 29 points led the Jazz (18-40), who have lost three in a row. Brice Sensabaugh scored 26 points off the bench on 10-for-15 shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Jazz forward Vince Williams Jr. had to be helped to the locker room after suffering a left knee injury in the second quarter and did not return.<\/p>\n<p>Jazz: Host New Orleans Pelicans for games on Thursday and Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Rockets: Host the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Jabari Smith Jr. had 31 points and nine rebounds and Amen Thompson scored 20 points as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-495682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}