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Turkish center Alperen Sengun recorded a double-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists as the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 110-100 on Monday night, snapping a two-game losing streak.
Sengun shot 9 of 17 from the field in just over 35 minutes at the Toyota Center, adding one steal and one block.
Kevin Durant led Houston with 23 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, going 10 of 10 from the free-throw line.
The Rockets earned their eighth win of the season after losses to Minnesota and Phoenix followed a 7-1 start.
Alperen Sengun was the 16th overall pick by Oklahoma City in the 2021 NBA Draft before his rights were acquired by Houston, entering 2024-25, he appeared in 210 games with 148 starts while averaging 14.9 points per game (PPG), 7.9 rebounds per game (RPG) and 3.8 assists per game (APG), in 2023-24, he was one of six players to have averaged at least 20.0 PPG, 9.0 RPG and 5.0 APG.
Sengun is the first player in NBA history to have recorded at least 3,000 points, 1,500 rebounds and 700 assists while playing fewer than 6,000 minutes through the first three seasons of a career.
Houston led by 16 early in the third quarter before Denver used an 18-2 run to tie it 60-60, with Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Cameron Johnson hitting 3-pointers as the Rockets missed nine straight shots.
A basket by Tari Eason, Houston’s first field goal in more than 6 1/2 minutes, started an 11-2 run for a 71-62 lead.
Murray pulled the Nuggets within four with under seven minutes left, helped by a Sengun turnover. Sengun answered with a short basket, and Fred VanVleet’s 3-pointer made it 96-87 with 5 1/2 minutes remaining.
After Murray’s free throws cut the gap to six, Christian Braun missed two free throws, and baskets by Sengun and Amen Thompson pushed the lead to 100-90 with four minutes left.
Jabari Smith Jr. added 14 points and seven rebounds, while VanVleet and Eason scored 12 each, with Eason finishing plus-18. Thompson had eight points and nine rebounds.
Murray scored 38 points on 14-of-23 shooting, his fourth game this season with at least 34 points, and Jokic had 25 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists as Denver’s two-game winning streak ended. It was the Nuggets’ fourth loss of the season.
In Phoenix, Victor Wembanyama had 40 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocks in 25 minutes as the San Antonio Spurs routed the Suns 122-96 for their ninth straight win.
He joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and David Robinson as the only players in NBA history with at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks in multiple games.
Devin Booker scored 32 points for Phoenix, which suffered its sixth loss.
Houston hosts Golden State on Wednesday, while Denver visits Memphis, as Alperen Sengun and the Rockets look to build on the win.
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