{"id":495868,"date":"2026-02-24T08:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495868\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T08:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:03:14","slug":"jabari-smith-scores-31-points-and-amen-thompson-adds-20-as-houston-rockets-beat-utah-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495868\/","title":{"rendered":"Jabari Smith scores 31 points and Amen Thompson adds 20 as Houston Rockets beat Utah Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a> had 31 points and nine rebounds and Amen Thompson<\/a> scored 20 points as the Houston Rockets<\/a> beat the Utah Jazz<\/a> 125-105 on Monday night.<\/p>\n

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

Thompson shot 8 for 9 from the field and finished with seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant<\/a> scored 18 points and added a season-high 12 assists. Reed Sheppard<\/a> scored 15 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

With the win, the Rockets (35-21) into third place in the Western Conference, behind Oklahoma City and San Antonio.<\/p>\n

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

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

Houston pushed its lead to as many as 33 points in the second half and never led by fewer than 16.<\/p>\n

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

Lauri Markkanen<\/a>\u2019s 29 points led the Jazz (18-40), who have lost three in a row. Brice Sensabaugh<\/a> scored 26 points off the bench on 10-for-15 shooting.<\/p>\n

Jazz forward Vince Williams Jr.<\/a> had to be helped to the locker room after suffering a left knee injury in the second quarter and did not return. Jazz coach Will Hardy said Williams will get an MRI. <\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Jazz: Host New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> for games on Thursday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Rockets: Host the Sacramento Kings<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/p>\n

By Adam Spolane, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Jabari Smith Jr. had 31 points and nine rebounds and Amen Thompson scored 20 points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-495868","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\/495868","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=495868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}