Houston Rockets beat Dallas Mavericks 128-110 at home on Wednesday, October 21, never trailing at a quarter break.
How it unfolded
The Rockets led at every quarter break. The cushion peaked at 32 after the second quarter and the Mavericks never got back in front at a break.
What decided it
The Rockets recovered 40.9% of their own misses against 24.2% for the Mavericks and the Rockets gave the ball away on 15.3% of their possessions while the Mavericks did so 20.1% of the time. Extra possessions add up quickly over 48 minutes.
The game played at about 101 possessions per team. The Rockets scored 126.5 points per 100 possessions and the Mavericks scored 108.7, a difference of 17.8.
The Mavericks' reserves also made a difference, outscoring the opposing bench 43-23.
Who made the difference
Cooper Flagg (DAL) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (24.3): 32 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl on 10-17 shooting. The team was -6 in the minutes Cooper played.
For the Rockets, Jabari Smith Jr. was the best of the rest at 24.2: 30 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast on 11-18 shooting.
Alperen Sengun (23 pts, 10 reb, 5 ast) and Amen Thompson (16 pts, 10 reb, 4 ast) each recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The result fit the pre-game Win Meter, which gave the Rockets about a 83% chance.
Across the last 8 meetings in our records, Houston Rockets lead 5-3.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.