Fred VanVleet, Rockets Rout Bucks to Stay Perfect

Fred VanVleet caught fire in the third quarter in Milwaukee, scoring 15 straight Houston points, and the Rockets cruised to a 132-100 win over the Bucks on Wednesday night to stay unbeaten at 5-0.

The fun part of this one is who wasn't on the floor. Alperen Sengun, Houston's leading scorer at 24.5 points per game, sat out with low back soreness, and Steven Adams and Marcus Smart were out too. The Rockets won by 32 anyway. That is a statement for a team trying to prove its hot start is real.

VanVleet Is Back

VanVleet finished with a team-high 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 4 of 9 from three, and went 6 for 6 at the line. This is a guy who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, so a night like this means a lot. His 15-point run midway through the third ended with three free throws that put Houston up 81-61, and the game was effectively over from there.

He filled the rest of the box score too, with six rebounds, five assists and two steals. He needed only 29 minutes to do all of it, which tells you how comfortable this one got for Houston.

Rockets fans watching that third-quarter stretch got the clearest sign yet that VanVleet is all the way back running this offense.

Houston Owned the Second Quarter

The game turned well before VanVleet's run. Houston outscored Milwaukee 34-14 in the second quarter, scoring the first eight points of the period to go up 31-21, and Clint Capela's tip-in pushed it to 49-30. The Rockets took a 57-35 lead into halftime. The Bucks went 4 for 24 from three in the first half and got to the free-throw line once.

Amen Thompson added 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, Kevin Durant scored 18 on 5-of-9 shooting with three blocks, and Bogdan Bogdanovic had 16 in just 15 minutes. As a team, Houston shot 54.8% and made 23 of 26 free throws.

For Bucks fans, the bright spots were Tyler Herro with 23 points and Jaime Jaquez Jr. with 19, but Milwaukee is now 1-4 and still searching.

Smacktok Pick Lean

Houston visits Dallas on Friday in NBA Cup play. If Sengun's back keeps him out again, we lean higher on Amen Thompson's points. He took 16 shots and scored 23 with Sengun sitting, and the touches have to go somewhere when the team's leading scorer is off the floor.