With Fred VanVleet on the sidelines, the Kings Rockets’ five-game winning streak ends

On January 17, 2025By Littum

With starting point guard Fred VanVleet (personal reasons) sidelined and playing night two of a road back-to-back, Houston Rockets had a five-game winning streak snapped in Thursday’s 132-127 loss (box score) at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center.

Without VanVleet, the Rockets had 14 turnovers (many of them live balls) and allowed 22 points off them, six more than what they scored off 12 Sacramento turnovers. The final margin was five.

The Rockets (27-13) still have a multi-game lead over the No. 2 place i Western Conference standings. The Kings improved to 21-20.

Outstanding stat lines included:

Jalen Green: 28 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists; 10-of-20 shooting (50.0%), 4-of-8 on 3-pointers (50.0%)
Amen Thompson: 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals; 8-of-12 shooting (66.7%)
Alperen Sengun: 21 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals; 8-of-15 shooting (53.3%)
DeMar DeRozan (Kings): 31 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists; 12-of-23 shooting (52.2%), 2-of-4 on 3-pointers (50.0%)
Malik Monk (Kings): 28 points, 9 assists; 10-of-19 shooting (52.6%)
Domantas Sabonis (Kings): 20 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists; 8-of-13 shooting (61.5%)

Reserve forward Tari Eason returned from 13 games because of lower left leg soreness, though he is limited to minutes so far. In an impressive 24-minute stint, Eason finished with 16 points and 4 rebounds for the Rockets on 6-of-10 shooting (60.0%).

January 16 Rockets-Kings complete highlights

16 January Reaction and interviews after the game

Ime Udoka said the officials called a “bunch of ticky-tack touch calls at the end,” which he said was “the opposite” of how they called the entire game.

— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) 17 January 2025

Ime Udoka: “We kept fighting, got back into the game and just too many mistakes when we had chances. I don’t know if we deserve to win this game.”

— Danielle Lerner (@danielle_lerner) 17 January 2025

Jalen Green hasn’t scored fewer than 20 points since the calendar turned to 2025.

— Will Kunkel (@WillKunkelFOX) 17 January 2025

Was hoping Jalen Green would hit the late 3 to tie at Sac. Love watching and rooting for Ime’s Rockets. Two young teams have risen to the top of the West, the Rockets and the Thunder.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) 17 January 2025

Jalen Green has actualized his potential in the last month and a bit – hope this holds because he has looked special. Really changes their offensive ceiling when he jumps like this.

— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) 17 January 2025

Steven Adams tonight…

5 PTS (2-2 FG) | 5 ROPE | 2 AST | 2 BLK | 12 Screen AST PTS

Game-high +16 +/- in 14 minutes in a 5 pt loss

His 3rd and 4th quarter minutes sparked the comeback to get the Rockets back in it

— Steven Adams Stats (@funakistats) 17 January 2025

These damn rockets. They have all the damn energy of the second night left.

— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) 17 January 2025

What’s next

The Rockets conclude their three-game road trip Saturday night in Portland, with tipoff versus the Trail Blazers (13-27) scheduled for 9:00 PM Central.

VanVleet’s availability for that game is not yet known.

More: Will Rockets guard Jalen Green get an NBA All-Star nod? Cam Whitmore thinks it should

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: With Fred VanVleet sidelined, the Kings Rockets’ five-game winning streak ends