Rookie guard Josh Christopher scored a career-high 23 points off the bench for Houston while largely filling in for Kevin Porter Jr., but it wasn’t nearly enough to win in Friday night’s 131-106 blowout loss (box score) at San Antonio. Led by 28 points from Keldon Johnson, the Spurs improved to 20-34 with the victory, while the young and rebuilding Rockets fell to 15-37 and remain at the bottom of the Western Conference.
Christopher hit 7-of-13 shots overall (53.8%) and 2-of-5 on 3-pointers (40.0%), and he also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in his 29 minutes. Christopher’s minutes were increased due to Porter leaving after only 11 minutes, with the team citing chest congestion as the reason. Porter had missed a game due to illness one week earlier.
Fellow rookie Alperen Sengun had 18 points and a career-high 3 blocks off the bench, but more veteran members of the rotation did not match that level of intensity. In postgame comments, head coach Stephen Silas criticized the team’s defensive mindset and lack of physicality.
Houston returns to action on Sunday at home versus New Orleans. Until then, scroll on for postgame reaction and highlights from Friday.
