Three Takeaways from the Rockets’ Win over the Mavericks

The Rockets faced off against Mavericks on Saturday evening, needing to grab another West win to keep climbing the standings. Ultimately they did just that, taking down Cooper Flagg and the Mavericks’ host of veterans to grab a narrow 111-107 win.

Here were three takeaways from the game:

Houston finally takes Dallas down

The Rockets have underperformed so far this season relative to preseason expectations, but have still been drastically better than Dallas. Despite that, the Mavericks took the first two games of the season series, winning by a combined 19 points.

On Saturday, the Rockets were finally able to nab a win versus their inter-state rival, fueled by a stingy defensive performance and a mixed bag of offense.

With the win, Houston moved one step closer to the Spurs and Nuggets, who they’d previously battled with atop the Western Conference standings, prior to a slow stretch in early-January.

The Mavericks aren’t likely to make a postseason push, now sitting tied for No. 12 in the West following Saturday’s loss.

Houston staves off late flurry from Cooper Flagg

The Rockets led for most of the game, but Dallas made their push late behind a flurry from No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg.

The rookie stayed aggressive until the very end, eclipsing 30 points by narrowing the Rockets’ lead to just six with a few minutes to play. Dallas would eventually tie it up with less than a minute to play. Alperen Sengun grabbed the go-ahead bucket, and Tari Eason got loose in transition to make the lead an insurmountable four points with seconds to play.

Flagg’s 34 points against Houston were solid, though they were at least able to hold him from another near-50-point explosion, which he had against the Hornets just days ago.

Rockets put together balanced scoring attack

Houston didn’t see a prolific scoring night overall, but was able to spread the wealth in putting together a balanced attack.

Six different Rockets finished in double-figure scoring, on a night when only nine played in total. Amen Thompson led the way with 21 points, followed by Jabari Smith Jr. with 19, and Tari Eason with 17. They also assisted on 33 of their 45 made buckets, simply moving the ball better than usual this season. Sengun and Kevin Durant were able to make it to double-digit scoring, though both were mightily inefficient on the night.

The Rockets also forced Dallas into the exact opposite, as rookie Cooper Flagg accounted for a good chunk of his team's offense.