The Houston Rockets can complete a clean sweep of their NBA Cup pool and will likely lock up the Western Conference’s top seed in the quarterfinals if they can pull out a victory on Tuesday night when they face the host Sacramento Kings.
The Rockets have beaten the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves to grab hold of first place in West Group A.
A fourth straight NBA Cup win would assure the Rockets of a home game in the West quarterfinals next week and possibly the conference’s top seed depending on how the Golden State Warriors do on the road against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.
The Kings have lost all three of their NBA Cup games and will not be advancing to the knockout round of the in-season tournament.
Houston’s most recent NBA Cup win — a 117-111 overtime decision against the Timberwolves — began the Rockets’ current three-game winning streak. Nothing has come easy, with the Rockets following up the Minnesota game with another overtime victory, 122-115, over the host Philadelphia 76ers before a 119-116 nail-biter at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Houston will be led onto the court by the new Western Conference Player of the Week. Alperen Sengun was given that honor after averaging 21.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks during the Rockets’ three-game run of tight wins last week.
Sengun wasted no time crediting Fred VanVleet, who scored 38 points against Oklahoma City, and Dillon Brooks, who engaged in a physical battle with Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, for playing big-time roles in the team’s recent success.
“Winning is fun,” Sengun said. “We learned that after we got the vets. It’s so much fun now.”
The Rockets and Kings have yet to meet this season. The clubs have alternated season-series sweeps the last two years, with Sacramento going 4-0 in 2022-23 before Houston rebounded with a 3-0 whitewashing last season.
The teams have headed in opposite directions as of late as well. While the Rockets were going unbeaten last week, the Kings were losing three of four games, including a 115-106 setback at Portland on Friday and a 127-125 home defeat against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
The loss to the Spurs occurred after Kings coach Mike Brown made a lineup change, starting Malik Monk for the first time this season. Monk responded with 19 points, giving the Kings four starters with 19 or more points, but the bench got outscored 45-22.
“What we’ve done so far hasn’t resulted in good things in terms of our record,” Brown said of the move. “I feel like I needed to shake it up. It was good, but at the end of the day, we still lost.”
Newcomer Jae Crowder, who had totaled 18 points in two starts after being signed as a free agent last week, swapped spots with Monk and managed just two points in 11 minutes off the bench.
