HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- The last time the Rockets shared the floor with the Oklahoma City Thunder, they played the favorites to win the Western Conference to a draw for the game's first 12 minutes, but they were run out of the gym the 12 minutes that followed.
Jalen Green and Shai-Gilgeous Alexander scored 10 points in a first quarter that ended tied at 31, but led by another 10 points from Gilgeous-Alexander and 10 points from Chet Holmgren, the Thunder outscored the Rockets 44-20 in the second quarter and coasted to a 126-107 win at Paycom Center on November 8.
"I felt it was the one game where we really got outplayed, and kind of got our ass kicked," Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said Saturday.
Udoka did not show his team film of that fateful second quarter, but he didn't need to. It was obvious to his players what went wrong.
"You can't score, and you can't get a stop is a recipe for disaster," Rockets guard Fred VanVleet said. "Give that team a lot of credit. They're a good team for a reason."
The Rockets and Thunder will meet for a second time this season on Sunday inside Toyota Center, in a game that will feature the top two teams in the Western Conference through the end of November.
Houston has won 9-of-11 games since that blowout loss and will take the floor with a 14-6 record, their best mark through 20 games in seven years, when the 2018 Rockets won 65 games and fell a game short of winning the Western Conference.
"I think that we've gotten better since (the first meeting)," VanVleet said. "You want to play your best against the best, so tomorrow should be fun."
Slowing the 15-4 Thunder starts with containing Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting against the Rockets three weeks ago, despite being defended by Dillon Brooks and Amen Thompson on most occasions.
"(You have to) take up his air space some," Udoka said. "I think we were back on our heels, a little bit too much, and he was getting ahead of steam, downhill attacking.
"We're gonna switch and do what we do there, but similar to (Tyrese) Maxey and (Anthony) Edwards, lately, where we were the aggressor in our switches, being aggressive and not sitting back on our heels where he's just attacking downhill the whole time."
The Rockets, who have had good injury luck for much of the season, will be at full strength on Sunday, while the Thunder will be without two key pieces from the game in Oklahoma City.
A nagging right hip injury will keep Alex Caruso off the floor, and the Thunder will also be without Holmgren, who suffered a right iliac hip fracture on November 10.
Holmgren blocked three shots and led a Thunder defense that held the Rockets to 44 percent shooting on shots in the paint, while scoring 29 points of his own on November 8, but Isaiah Hartenstein, who missed the first game with a fractured right hand will be available for Oklahoma City this time around.
"They switch a little bit more with Holmgren," Udoka said. "Offensively, it's just a lot more natural pick and roll. Big/small pick and roll, more traditional. As far as that. They still do all their small/small stuff, but it's a little bit more traditional with (Hartenstein) setting and being a roller and lob right there."
Of the Rockets six losses this season, the 19-point drubbing they took at the hands of the Thunder on November 8 is the only that was by more than six points.
"It was early in the season and that was probably the only team that really beat up on us like that," Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr said. "So we definitely looking forward to it, to get some good back."
