Kevin Durant Lauds Alperen Sengun’s Triple-Double After Rockets Win vs. Thunder

On Saturday, the Houston Rockets picked up a much-needed win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. At this point of the season, every game is pivotal for the Rockets.

Although it's still too early in the season to coin any game as a must-win, Houston has dropped games that have certainly been winnable, which could prove costly down the stretch.

Especially for seeding purposes in the postseason.

The Thunder were without MVP and superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his All-Star partner in crime Jaylen Williams.

Yet and still, it looked like they were able to cruise to an easy victory.

Early in Saturday's game, the Rockets fell to a 15-point deficit in the first quarter.

Then. Houston displayed an entirely different offense than what we've seen of late (or all season).

The Rockets' 3-point efficiency was especially noticeable. Granted, they've been good from deep all season.

(Currently they rank eighth, at 36.8 percent).

But they don't usually shoot many of them -- 30.6 per night, on average.

Houston took 43 threes in Saturday's victory, and made 15 of them.

They also got a monster night from Alperen Sengun, who had a triple-double, with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists.

Sengun had been called out by Rockets coach Ime Udoka earlier in the week for his defense and responded in a major way with six stocks (three steals and three blocks).

(As a side note, Udoka was specifically asked about teams hunting Sengun for switches on pick-and-rolls, not necessarily Sengun’s defense overall).

The Turkish big man led Houston in rebounds and had the game high in assists.

After the game, Rockets superstar forward Kevin Durant took to social media to praise Sengun’s big performance.

"Triple double for 28 tonight…Ayye. Let’s go rockets"

One day later (the next morning, more specifically), Sengun was announced as an All-Star, as he got the nod as the injury replacement for the aforementioned Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Again, the Rockets' victory over Oklahoma City was a big game. Sure, the Thunder were without multiple stars.

The Rockets were too.

Amen Thompson didn't play and Houston has been without Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams all season. It's part of the game.

An unfortunate one, I might add.

The Rockets take the court again on Tuesday, facing off against the LA Clippers, who they'll play again on Wednesday in their last back-to-back game before the All-Star break.