{"id":412433,"date":"2026-01-17T06:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412433\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:53:07","slug":"rockets-110-wolves-105-in-key-win-kevin-durant-drops-season-high-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412433\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets 110, Wolves 105: In key win, Kevin Durant drops season-high 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON — The Rockets entered Friday in a historically awful 3-point shooting stretch<\/a>, but Kevin Durant made sure to end it in Friday\u2019s 111-105 victory (box score<\/a>) over the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the win, the fifth-seeded Rockets (24-15) pulled closer to the fourth-seeded Wolves (27-15) in the tightly packed Western Conference standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Durant, a perennial All-Star and future Hall of Famer, was the big story.<\/p>\n

On night two of a back-to-back for the Rockets (who lost to Oklahoma City on Thursday<\/a>), the 37-year-old finished with a season-high 39 points and 7 assists while making 11-of-18 shots (61.1%), 6-of-8 from 3-point range (75.0%), and 11-of-14 from the free-throw line (78.6%).<\/p>\n

\u201cBe aggressive, and try to bounce back after last night,\u201d Durant told Space City Home Network\u2019s Vanessa Richardson<\/a> of his mindset. \u201dI just love that we’re staying together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves weren\u2019t on night two of a back-to-back, but they were without All-Star guard Anthony Edwards (toe infection<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Beyond Durant, key individual statistics for both teams included:<\/p>\n

Alperen Sengun: 25 points, 14 rebounds; 11-of-22 shooting (50.0%)<\/p>\n

Amen Thompson: 14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists; 5-of-12 shooting (41.7%)<\/p>\n

Reed Sheppard: 14 points, 2 assists in 19 minutes; 5-of-9 shooting (55.6%), 4-of-6 on 3-pointers (66.7%)<\/p>\n

Julius Randle (Timberwolves): 39 points, 4 rebounds; 14-of-25 shooting (56.0%), 2-of-5 on 3-pointers ($0.0%), 9-of-11 on free throws (81.8%)<\/p>\n

Rudy Gobert (Wolves): 10 points, 13 rebounds, 2 blocks; 4-of-7 shooting (57.1%), 2-of-10 on free throws (20.0%)<\/p>\n

Naz Reid (Wolves): 25 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists; 8-of-12 shooting (66.7%), 5-of-7 on 3-pointers (71.4%), 4-of-5 on free throws (80.0%)<\/p>\n

Collectively, Houston shot 39-of-84 overall (46.4%) and 12-of-28 from 3-point range (42.9%), a dramatic improvement from recent games.<\/p>\n

Next up for the Rockets is Sunday\u2019s matchup versus New Orleans (10-34), which is the fourth of a five-game homestand at Toyota Center.<\/p>\n

Tipoff of Rockets-Pelicans is at 6:00 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: \u2018Exponentially better\u2019: Wolves impressed by Houston\u2019s Tristen Newton<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets 110, Wolves 105: In key win, Kevin Durant drops season-high 39<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON — The Rockets entered Friday in a historically awful 3-point shooting stretch, but Kevin Durant made sure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[40367,47943,31513,6424,5556,11951,78366,355,6099,12205,60525,92429,99,173108,130305,24430],"class_list":["post-412433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-julius-randle","tag-kevin-durant","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-naz-reid","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-sports","tag-the-rockets","tag-tristen-newton","tag-wolves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}