{"id":93883,"date":"2025-12-19T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/93883\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:06:09","slug":"collapse-at-new-orleans-exposes-houstons-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/93883\/","title":{"rendered":"Collapse at New Orleans exposes Houston\u2019s defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dec. 18, 2025, 11:12 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

Three days after a frustrating and conversial loss<\/a> at Denver, the Houston Rockets<\/a> made matters worse with Thursday\u2019s 133-128 overtime loss (box score<\/a>) at New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Despite their lowly record, the Pelicans (6-22) overcame a 25-point deficit in the second half. Forwards Trey Murphy III and Saddiq Bey scored 27 and 29 points, respectively, while combining to make 20-of-31 shots (64.5% FG) and 5-of-7 from 3-point range (71.4%).<\/p>\n

The Rockets (16-8) gave up 74 points in the second half and 14 in overtime. Defensively, a Houston squad that was once No. 2<\/a> in the NBA on defense is No. 16 in December<\/a> \u2014 a month in which they are now 3-4 as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmbarrasing defensive effort,\u201d head coach Ime Udoka said<\/a> of Houston\u2019s second-half showing.<\/p>\n

Offensively, the Rockets did have a few standouts, though the lack of defense made it inconsequential to the final result. Statistical leaders included:<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Kevin Durant: 32 points, 7 rebounds, 6 turnovers, 4 blocks; 12-of-15 shooting (80.0%), 4-of-6 on 3-pointers (66.7%)Alperen Sengun: 28 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks; 11-of-26 shooting (42.3%), 6-of-10 on free throws (60.0%)Amen Thompson: 23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 turnovers; 11-of-14 shooting (78.6%)Reed Sheppard: 11 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds; 4-of-12 shooting (33.3%), 3-of-10 on 3-pointers (30.0%)\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Herbert Jones had a career-high 8 steals for the Pelicans, who forced the Rockets into 18 turnovers while committing only 12, themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just relaxed, got too cool thinking we\u2019re there already,\u201d Durant said postgame. \u201cWe got to to play 48 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys looked intimidated, scared, whatever, out of double teams (trying) to make plays,\u201d Udoka said. \u201cTeams are going to do that with Kevin and Alperen and make others beat us, and we couldn’t execute tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up for the Rockets is Saturday\u2019s highly anticipated rematch against the Nuggets (19-6). Tipoff is at 4:00 p.m. Central, and the game will be televised regionally\u00a0on Space City Home Network (SCHN)<\/a>\u00a0and nationally via\u00a0NBA League Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More: \u2018Championship piece\u2019: Rockets stars praise Jabari Smith Jr.\u2019s leap<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 18, 2025, 11:12 p.m. CT Three days after a frustrating and conversial loss at Denver, the Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,13516,56,58,57,9261,9262,12162,6326,13515,21090,43896,9264,15751,15752,1593,2579,25266,15559,42,15753,46,43895,36],"class_list":["post-93883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-co","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sstssportsnbarockets","tag-sstsnrockets","tag-tagalperen-sengun","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagdenver","tag-tagdenver-nuggets","tag-tagherbert-jones","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagime-udoka","tag-tagjabari-smith-jr","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagnew-orleans","tag-tagnew-orleans-pelicans","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagreed-sheppard","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtrey-murphy-iii","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93883","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=93883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}