{"id":20867,"date":"2025-10-25T15:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/20867\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T15:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:38:12","slug":"rockets-fall-to-0-2-as-houstons-young-core-struggles-versus-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/20867\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets fall to 0-2 as Houston\u2019s young core struggles versus Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">HOUSTON &#8212; In Friday\u2019s regular-season home opener at Toyota Center, Kevin Durant delivered exactly what Rockets fans were hoping for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In 37 minutes, the 37-year-old All-Star finished with a game-high 37 points and 3 steals while making 9-of-18 shots; all three of his 3-point attempts; and 16-of-18 from the free-throw line (88.9%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Unfortunately, in a 115-111 loss (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/det-vs-hou-0022500093\/box-score\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">box score<\/a>) to the visiting <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/detroit-pistons\/8\/\" data-autotag=\"3cf4207f-5b2d-4335-b9df-baab70e08bac\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Detroit Pistons<\/a>, the future Hall of Famer didn\u2019t have much help on offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Among Houston\u2019s recent first-round draft picks who are all 24 years old or younger, key statistical lines included:<\/p>\n<p>Alperen Sengun: 17 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers; 5-of-18 shooting (27.8%), 0-of-2 on 3-pointersAmen Thompson: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 turnovers; 2-of-8 shooting (25.0%), 6-of-10 on free throws (60.0%)Jabari Smith Jr.: 11 points, 6 rebounds; 3-of-14 shooting (21.4%)Reed Sheppard: 9 points, 3 steals, 3 turnovers, 1 assist; 3-of-11 shooting (27.3%)Tari Eason: 4 points, 5 rebounds; 2-of-5 shooting (40.0%)Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">All-Star guard Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 21 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds, shooting 7-of-16 from the field (43.8%) and 3-of-8 on 3-pointers (37.5%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As a team, the Pistons were dynamic from 3-point range at 16-of-39 (41.0%), and that easily outpaced Houston\u2019s 10-of-22 total (45.5%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Though the Rockets <a href=\"http:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/10\/20\/jumbo-rockets-open-season-with-big-lineup-steven-adams-as-starter\/86802998007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">again started a large starting lineup<\/a> featuring two centers in Sengun and Steven Adams and two additional 6-foot-11 players in Durant and Smith, the Pistons actually outrebounded Houston for the game, 48-45.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Furthermore, many of Detroit\u2019s treys came versus Houston\u2019s zone defense, which Ime Udoka often runs to try and overcome the lack of agility in \u201cdouble big\u201d lineups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Rockets return to action Monday night with another home game versus Brooklyn, with tipoff from Toyota Center scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Central. That game will be televised regionally <a href=\"http:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/10\/06\/live-rockets-broadcasts-how-to-watch-stream-space-city-home-network\/86546521007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">via Space City Home Network<\/a> and nationally through NBA League Pass.<\/p>\n<p>More: <a href=\"http:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/10\/24\/rockets-working-to-find-better-shots-for-kevin-durant-alperen-sengun\/86878980007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-t-l=\":b|e|spike click:13|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\">Rockets, Reed Sheppard working to generate better shots for Kevin Durant, Alperen Sengun<\/a><a class=\"gnt_em_vp_a gnt_em_vp__yt_a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CrQqf58IFbQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-g-r=\"vp_tg\" aria-label=\"Play YouTube video\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"gnt_em_vp_img gnt_em_vp_img__yn\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/CrQqf58IFbQ\/maxresdefault.jpg\" onload=\"if(this.naturalWidth&lt;200){this.setAttribute('onload','this.classList.remove(\\'gnt_em_vp_img__yn\\')');this.src=\" https:=\"\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8212; In Friday\u2019s regular-season home opener at Toyota Center, Kevin Durant delivered exactly what Rockets fans were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,9261,9262,12162,12163,6326,15490,15489,2518,9264,15751,15752,9263,1593,2579,184,15753,46,15493,15754,216,36],"class_list":["post-20867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sstssportsnbarockets","tag-sstsnrockets","tag-tagalperen-sengun","tag-tagamen-thompson","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcade-cunningham","tag-tagdetroit-pistons","tag-taghouston","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagime-udoka","tag-tagjabari-smith-jr","tag-tagkevin-durant","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagreed-sheppard","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagsteven-adams","tag-tagtari-eason","tag-tx","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}