The Rockets walked into Memphis hungry to silence the doubters after their loss to the Thunder Wednesday night, and they walked out of Memphis after just doing so.
The Rockets scored a big win against the Grizzlies with a score of 115-103.
The energy came straight out of the gates for the Rockets with John Wall scoring the point for the team. After Wall missed Wednesday’s game in OKC for cargo management, Wall dropped 22 points and eight assists. The Rockets have improved 7-0 this season in the games Wall plays without James Harden.
Wall’s energy permeated through his teammates tonight, who all wanted to rinse the nasty taste in the mouth of yesterday’s game.
Jae’Sean Tate scored his best game of his young career, with a career high of 19 points and 7 boards shot at 7-9. Danuel House also saved itself after a poor performance on Wednesday with 13 points off the bench.
The Rockets held on until the late second quarter with the scrappy Grizzlies, when the Rockets ran 18-4 to push the game in favor of Houston.
If we look at the score, it was a perfect game for Houston, except for what happened in the middle of the third quarter when Christian Wood sprained his right ankle again.
Wood limped the game with 17 points and 7 rebounds, a line that has become routine for him as a Rocket this season. The re-injury of the right ankle is likely to force Wood to miss more than the mere three games he missed after spraining his ankle on January 20th.
In the end, the victory has a price with the loss of Wood, but this team is no stranger to the ‘next man up’ mentality, and they will accept this attitude again while Wood is being eliminated.
The Rockets’ next game against the Spurs arrives at home on Saturday night. Tipoff is at 7pm CT.