HOUSTON (AP) — Kevin Durant had 27 points and the Houston Rockets took a huge lead early and rolled to a 111-94 win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night.
It’s a third straight win for the Rockets after they’d dropped two in a row. The victory comes after New York got a 108-106 win at home in the first meeting this season in February.
The Rockets never trailed and led by double digits for most of the game after scoring 37 points in the first quarter. They were up 20 entering the fourth quarter and were leading by 19 with about two minutes to go when both teams cleared their benches.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points and eight rebounds for the Knicks, who lost a third consecutive game after winning their previous seven. Each of their three losses have been by double digits.
Tari Eason started over Reed Sheppard and had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets.
All of Houston’s starters finished with at least 13 points. Amen Thompson had 17, Jabari Smith Jr. added 15 and Alperen Sengun had 13 points and led the team with 10 assists. Sheppard added 20 points off the bench with five rebounds.
The Knicks got within 12 points on a 3-pointer by Jalen Brunson with about three minutes left in the third quarter. But the Rockets scored the next seven points, with the help of two turnovers by New York, to push the lead to 87-68 with about 90 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Recommended for you
Durant and Eason powered Houston's big first quarter with the duo combining for 23 points with four 3-pointers in the frame.
Up next
Knicks: Visit Memphis on Wednesday night.
Rockets: Hosts the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.