Green, VanVleet score 21 each as Houston Rockets beat San Antonio Spurs 127-100

HOUSTON (AP) – Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet each had 21 points and the Houston Rockets built a big lead early and cruised to a 127-100 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.

Houston never trailed and had built a 25-point lead by halftime. The Rockets were up by 27 points when coach Ime Udoka cleared the bench with about 6½ minutes left.

Alpine Sengun added 16 points for the Rockets, who won for the fourth time in five games. VanVleet had 10 assists and seven rebounds — both season highs — to go with his season-high scoring effort.

Victor Wembanyama had 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the Spurs, who lost their second straight game. They played a third straight game without coach Gregg Popovich, who is out indefinitely while recovering from an illness. Mitch Johnson is filling in as interim coach while the 75-year-old Popovich, who did not travel with the team on this road trip, is out.

Takeaways

Spurs: San Antonio’s defense suffered Wednesday in its first game without top on-ball defender Jeremy Sochan, who suffered a broken left thumb that will require surgery in Monday’s game. Rookie Stephon Castle, who started in his place, will have to step up with Sochan likely out for an extended period.

Rockets: After failing to play consistently for four quarters in the last two games, Houston finally put together a complete game against the Spurs.

Key moment

The Rockets were up by 7 with about five minutes left in the first quarter before using a 7-0 run, capped by the first five points by VanVleet, to make it 22-8. The Spurs got no closer than 10 points after that.

Key state

The Rockets dominated inside, outrebounding the Spurs 66-46.

Next

San Antonio hosts Portland on Thursday night and the Rockets visit Oklahoma City on Friday night.

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