{"id":96932,"date":"2025-12-22T09:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/96932\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T09:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:15:07","slug":"houston-suffers-another-late-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/96932\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston suffers another late meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dec. 22, 2025, 12:34 a.m. CT<\/p>\n

For a second time in four days, the Houston Rockets<\/a> blew a second-half lead of at least 14 points to a team with six-or-fewer wins entering the game. For a third time in December, they lost on night two of a road back-to-back to a team most expect to be in the 2026 NBA draft lottery.<\/p>\n

On the heels of similar December losses at New Orleans (7-22), Utah (10-17), and Dallas (11-18), the Rockets fell in Sunday\u2019s overtime to the Sacramento Kings<\/a>, 125-124 (box score<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Kings (7-22) remain tied for last place in the Western Conference, while the Rockets (17-9) slipped to sixth place after another embarrassing defeat. Houston is now 4-5 in December.<\/p>\n

After missing 14 games with oblique and leg issues, fourth-year forward Tari Eason returned<\/a> and scored 16 points in 16 minutes while making 6-of-8 shots (75.0%), including 3-of-3 from 3-point range. However, he helped off Dennis Schroder on the decisive possession of overtime, leading to the game-deciding trey.<\/p>\n

Key individual statistics included:<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Alperen Sengun: 28 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks; 12-of-17 shooting (70.6%)Kevin Durant: 24 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists; 8-of-21 shooting (38.1%)Jabari Smith Jr.: 18 points, 5 rebounds; 6-of-16 shooting (37.5%)Amen Thompson: 18 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals; 7-of-10 shooting (70.0%)Keegan Murray (Kings): 26 points, 4 rebounds; 9-of-14 shooting (64.3%), 3-of-4 on 3-pointers (75.0%)DeMar DeRozan (Kings): 27 points, 9 assists; 9-of-17 shooting (52.9%), 8-of-9 on free throws (88.9%)Russell Westbrook (Kings): 21 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals; 5-of-12 on 3-pointers (41.7%)Dennis Schroder (Kings): 24 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds; 7-of-13 shooting (53.8%), 3-of-8 on 3-pointers (37.5%), 7-of-8 on free throws (87.5%)Maxime Raynaud (Kings): 12 points, 14 rebounds; 6-of-12 shooting (50.0%)<\/p>\n

The Kings entered as the NBA\u2019s worst rebounding team, and the Rockets rank No. 1 in the league. Yet, Sacramento won the rebounding battle, as Steven Adams (rest) sat out for maintenance considerations due to it being night two of the back-to-back.<\/p>\n

With Sunday\u2019s result in the books, the Rockets are now two-thirds of their way through a season-long road trip of six games. Their final two are nationally televised showdowns in Los Angeles, starting with Tuesday\u2019s matchup against the Clippers (7-21). In an NBC showcase, tipoff is at 9:30 p.m. Central.<\/p>\n

The Rockets will then wrap up the road trip with Thursday\u2019s Christmas night game versus the Lakers (19-8), with tipoff at 7:00 p.m. Central and a national broadcast on ABC and ESPN.<\/p>\n

More: After 14-game injury absence, Tari Eason returns to Rockets\u2019 rotation<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 22, 2025, 12:34 a.m. CT For a second time in four days, the Houston Rockets blew a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,9261,9262,12162,6326,44748,1589,9264,15752,44749,28674,6319,1593,2579,42,29120,3054,46,15493,15754,36],"class_list":["post-96932","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-tagbasketball","tag-tagdennis-schroeder","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagjabari-smith-jr","tag-tagkeegan-murray","tag-taglos-angeles-clippers","tag-taglos-angeles-lakers","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsacramento-kings","tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagsteven-adams","tag-tagtari-eason","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96932","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=96932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}