HOUSTON — Alperen Sengun scored a career-high 45 points with a season-high 16 rebounds to lead the Houston Rockets to a 114-101 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.
Sengun, who is in his third NBA season, also set a career high with five steals and three assists and a block, edging out French rookie phenom and No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama. He had 10 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks as San Antonio’s two-game winning streak ended.
“He was a beast,” Jalen Green said. “He was incredible, he’s the Alpi I know.”
Sengun is the fifth player since 1973-74, when steals began being recorded, to total at least 45 points, 15 rebounds and five steals in a game. He joins Anthony Davis, who did it twice, Joel Embiid, James Harden and John Drew. At 21 years and 224 days, Sengun is the youngest player to record such a response.
Sengun admitted that he was very motivated to put in a good performance against Wembanyama on Tuesday after scoring 15 points and nine rebounds in the last meeting with the Spurs.
“Yeah, sure,” he said. “I didn’t play a very good last match against him, I can say that. I didn’t see many double teams today. They just left me one-on-one with Wemby, so I just did what I do.
The Spurs scored five points, including a 3 from Keldon Johnson, to cut the lead to 92-88 with about eight minutes left.
Houston then used a 7-2 run to make the score 99-92 midway through the quarter. Wembanyama made two turnovers during that stretch to help Houston take the lead. The second came on a steal from Sengun and he raced down the court before making a nifty behind-the-back pass to Cam Whitmore, who finished with a two-handed dunk.
The Rockets led by 8 late in the fourth before enjoying another 7-2 spurt to make it 114-101. Sengun capped his big night by scoring Houston’s final five points, finishing with a 3-pointer.
Jalen Green added 23 points with 10 assists for Houston and Fred VanVleet had 21 points.
The Spurs were led by Devin Vassell, who had 22 points and Branham had 20 points coming off the bench.
“They were physical from start to finish,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “They came after this way, they played this way. They put us in the mud, we didn’t react very well to it and you got the result.
San Antonio’s Jeremy Sochan tripped Amen Thompson while he was on the ground with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. Thompson stood up and immediately pushed Sochan and the two players shoved each other several times before officials and players stepped between them to break things up.
Sochan received a 1 flagrant foul for tripping Thompson and both players received technical fouls for the assured shoving match.
Houston then used a 7-1 run to take a 72-67 lead.
Malaki Branham then made a 3 for the Spurs, but Houston scored the next eight points, highlighted by a 3 from VanVleet, to extend the lead to 10.
The Spurs scored the final seven points of the quarter, capped by 3 more from Branham, to get within 80-77 heading into the fourth.
FOLLOWING
Spurs: Visit Sacramento Thursday night.
Rockets: Host the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
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