Rockets beat the Pistons, 136-113. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
Two nights after their NBA record-tying 28-game losing streak ended, the Detroit Pistons were blown out 136-113 on Monday night by the Houston Rockets, who got 26 points and nine assists from Alperen Sengun and 22 points from Jalen Green.
Detroit (3-30), which beat Toronto 129-127 on Saturday, failed to win consecutive games for the second time this season.
Pistons coach Monty Williams said he had thought about how his team would respond after the win.
“I thought about it the last day,” Williams said. “When you’re fighting for a win like we were for so long and you get one, I’m sure there’s emotional stuff that I can’t explain, but when you’re in our situation, you got to recover quickly.”
Green and Sengun combined to score 37 points in the third quarter as the Rockets outscored the Pistons 47-25 in the period to take a 106-80 lead into the fourth.
“It wasn’t the best feeling going in at halftime up four when we felt like we played well enough to be up double digits,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “Gave a few leads up, but came out with the right mindset, focused and had a big quarter. (We) kind of put it away there.”
Sengun shot 9 of 13 from the field and Green made five 3-pointers as the Rockets snapped a three-game skid.
Sengun said he played more aggressively in the third quarter.
“I knew I needed to play better,” Sengun said. “I was mad at myself, and I pushed myself in the second half. I played my game. I wasn’t playing like myself in the first half. I missed a lot of shots. I didn’t play with that energy, but if you want to win everyone has to play good, and I did my job in the third quarter.”
Sengun has scored at least 20 points in six straight games, and Green has scored at least 20 in three straight.
Alec Burks scored 21 points, Jaden Ivey added 19 and Bojan Bogdanovic had 14 for the Pistons. Jalen Duren had 12 points and 13 rebounds for Detroit, which shot 49% and went 13 of 29 on 3-pointers.
“We are one of the youngest teams in the league, so no one should outwork us ever, and that's what happened tonight,” Bogdanovic said. “They kind of outrun us, outworked us, and that's got to stop.”
Tari Eason had 17 points, Jae’Sean Tate scored 16 and Fred VanVleet had 15 points and seven assists for Houston, which shot 56%, including 15 of 35 on 3s. The Rockets turned 18 turnovers into 33 points.
Houston’s Amen Thompson had 12 points in his first game against twin brother Ausar Thompson, who finished with five points for Detroit.
Leading 62-60 early in the third quarter, Houston went on a 19-4 run to open up an 81-64 lead on a 3-pointer by VanVleet with 6:43 remaining in the third. Sengun scored 11 points during the burst.
UP NEXT
Pistons: At Utah on Wednesday.
Rockets: Host Brooklyn on Wednesday as their seven-game homestand continues.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.