Houston Rockets @ Washington Wizards
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 7:00 PM ET
Capital One Arena, Washington, DC | Game ID: 22300992
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
WAS 36 21 25 32 114HOU 39 21 41 36 137
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Jalen Green's 42 points lift the Rockets to their 6th straight win, 137-114 over the Wizards
WASHINGTON -- — Jalen Green tied a career high with 42 points, and the Houston Rockets closed the third quarter on a 25-6 run en route to their sixth straight victory, 137-114 over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.
Houston is now just 2 1/2 games behind Golden State for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference. Amen Thompson scored 25 points for the Rockets, and Fred VanVleet had seven points and 11 assists.
“I've had runs where I'd get hot and cool down,” Green said. “My main goal is just to keep building on the hot streaks and be as consistent as possible and affect the game in ways even when I'm not scoring the ball well.”
Corey Kispert scored 16 points for Washington, which was without Kyle Kuzma (left shoulder), Deni Avdija (right knee), Tyus Jones (back) and Bilal Coulibaly (right wrist).
Even with all those absences, the Wizards shot well enough from 3-point range to make a game of it for 2 1/2 quarters. Then Green broke a 76-all tie with two straight 3s and a three-point play, making it 85-76. After a couple Washington free throws, the Rockets scored seven more points in a row and it was never close after that.
“Really it was the last six minutes of the third,” Wizards interim coach Brian Keefe said. “That game was back and forth, pretty much the whole game until that point. Obviously Green, we made a couple blown coverages on some of our pick-and-roll stuff and he got hot. And it was hard to turn him off after that.”
Green scored 15 points in the third quarter and finished the game with 10 rebounds. His previous season high in points was 37 — last Thursday against Washington.
Jabari Smith Jr. scored 18 points with 14 rebounds for the Rockets. Justin Champagnie and Jules Bernard scored 16 points apiece for the Wizards.
“I think we had eight of the nine guys in double figures,” Keefe said. “So there were a lot of positives.”
Jock Landale had seven of Houston's 11 blocked shots. Washington's Jordan Poole had six of his shots blocked, five by Landale. Poole scored 13 points on 5-of-18 shooting.
Champagnie banked in a shot from midcourt to end the first quarter, cutting Houston's lead to three. The Rockets led 60-57 at halftime.
“My message was: We’re messing around with the game,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “We're scoring at a high enough clip, but we got to guard.”
Washington has won only four games at home this season, one fewer at Capital One Arena than North Carolina State's college team won at the ACC Tournament just last week . After five straight losses, the Wizards have the NBA's worst record at 11-58. They are 1 1/2 games behind Detroit.
WAS KarmaHide StintsShow StintsHide PMShow PMHide KarmaShow KarmaHide ScoresShow Scores
Who
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
HOUAH A. Holiday
AT A. Thompson
BM B. Marjanović
DB D. Brooks
FV F. VanVleet
JG J. Green
JL J. Landale
JS J. Smith Jr.
JT J. Tate
JG Ja. Green
JG Je. Green
NW N. Williams
RB R. Bullock Jr.
WASAG A. Gill
CK C. Kispert
JB J. Bernard
JB J. Butler
JC J. Champagnie
JD J. Davis
JP J. Poole
PB P. Baldwin Jr.
RH R. Holmes
HOU/WAS the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur