HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- The Rockets led the San Antonio Spurs 63-38 when the first half ended inside Toyota Center on Wednesday night.
Led by Fred VanVleet's 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting, they led wire-to-wire while holding a shorthanded Spurs team to 36 percent shooting with 12 turnovers, but coming out of the locker room things flipped.
The Rockets turned the ball over on their first three possessions of the second half, with VanVleet, who entered the quarter 44 assists and five turnovers all season, responsible for two, forcing Ime Udoka to call a timeout.
San Antonio would trim the Rockets lead to 16, but Houston recovered to get the lead back to 25 before the third quarter ended before eventually winning the game 127-100.
"We played a really businesslike approach to (the game)," Udoka said. "You're always going to nitpick a little bit and find something, but that start third was the only hiccup we had for the most part."
Wednesday's win came 48 hours after a 109-97 victory over the New York Knicks, where the Rockets did not lose a quarter and held the Knicks to 41 points after halftime.
The Rockets haven't just won the last two games, they have put together four full quarters of solid basketball, something that had been allusive for the first six games of the season.
"We had maybe 90 seconds of I don't know what the hell that was coming out of halftime with the turnovers and things like that, and then the close of the second quarter the other night, but other than that, we've been playing pretty good the last two games," VanVleet said. "Gotta be able to pack that up and take it on the road."
To win a third straight game, the Rockets will have to put together another full 48-minute performance when they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night.
Despite a loss to Denver on Wednesday, Oklahoma City is tied atop the Western Conference standings with a 7-1 record, so Friday would seem to be a great opportunity to see how the Rockets stack up with one of the West's best coming off back-to-back wins, but they don't look at it that way.
"If you guys need a story to write, sure," VanVleet said. "But other than that, it's another game. We know the challenge that they bring, and we know the type of team that we are, so we're on our own grind and on our own road, and we just got to walk that road and keep chipping away."
After starting the season shooting 28 percent from the field, VanVleet has connected on 18-of-24 shots over the last two games.
