The Houston Rockets have sealed their spot in the NBA Cup quarterfinals after a thrilling overtime victory in Minnesota on Tuesday. The Rockets led by 10 at halftime and six at the start of the fourth quarter, but it was a 16-3 run over the final minute of the fourth and first four minutes of overtime that sealed the 117-111 victory in pretty breathtaking fashion.
Alperen Sengun was at the heart of it all.
Sengun has been sensational all season and he put a master class on Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in the post, getting his body into the four-time Defensive Player of the Year time and time again before dropping in all manner of shots. Fade-aways. Jump hooks. Rim rolls.
With under two minutes to play in overtime, Sengun backed Gobert damn near into the rim before flipping a layup backward over his head like he was playing a game of “Horse.”
A minute later, Sengun again abused Gobert in the post. It sealed the game, and Sengun let Gobert know about it with the “too small” gesture as he ran back down the court.
The “too small” thing is pretty worn out, but it’s still fun in two specific scenarios. First, when a legitimately small guy — like Russell Westbrook — bullies a big guy down low, and when anyone does it to Gobert, who, fairly or not, is seemingly everyone’s favorite player to clown. You just know Draymond Green was watching this somewhere and cackling.
Sengun finished with a triple-double of 22 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds, three steals and three blocks. The shooting line wasn’t efficient. He forced up some ill-advised jumpers if you want to nitpick. But when he established position and created space, he was brilliant. Here’s a full look at his stat-stuffing night:
Equally brilliant were Jabari Smith Jr. (19 points on 8-of-9 shooting), Fred VanVleet (27 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds and six 3-pointers), Dillon Brooks (22 points and four 3-pointers), and Amen Thompson, who played lockdown defense on Anthony Edwards in crunch time and chipped in with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
The Rockets were terrific defensively as a whole. Edwards was the only guy they were concerned with. And in the game’s deciding stretches, they were ultra aggressive with traps to get the ball out of his hands. They weren’t always successful. Edwards forced his way to the rim when his 3-point shot wasn’t falling and had a number of strong finishes. But all in all, the Rockets rotated on the backside and forced Minnesota, for the most part, to make contested shots.
The Wolves got back into the game and had the aforementioned five-point lead with under two minutes to play, but Houston just kept coming. The Rockets were too good, too determined, too unfazed by the run of the Wolves down the stretch of the fourth, and again, Sengun was a star in money time. And there was nothing Gobert could do about it.
