The Houston Rockets went into Saturday’s game with the Dallas Mavericks pretty short-handed. Alperen Sengun was out due to illness. Steven Adams sat for the back-to-back. And with Dorian Finney-Smith, Tari Eason and Fred VanVleet already on the shelf, that’s a playoff team in and of itself on the bench for the Rockets. Add in their second back-to-back of the season and you have a recipe for a loss, which is exactly what you got in Saturday’s 122-109 defeat.

It was a tight game to start, but the tired legs and lack of depth caught up to the Rockets in the second half, and the Mavs blew the game open with a huge third quarter, sending the Rockets to 15-6 on the year in the loss.

Houston was led by Kevin Durant’s 27 points on 11-for-20 shooting, but he had virtually no other stats — just 1 rebound and 3 assists — on the night. The Rockets also got 22 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block from Jabari Smith Jr. on 10-for-19 shooting from the floor, but Houston’s starters were resoundly outplayed by the Dallas starters, with not a single Rockets starter finishing with a positive plus-minus.

The Mavs were also down several players, including Kyrie Irving and their top two centers, and were also on a back-to-back, so no excuses for the Rockets, but it was their second straight ugly loss on a back-to-back. Ime Udoka is going to need to do something about that.

The Rockets did get some positive bench peformances, with Aaron Holiday finishing with 19 points on 7-for-12 from the floor, and Reed Sheppard finished with 12 points and 3 assists on 5-for-8 shooting. They played 27 and 20 minutes, respectively, and were the only two Rockets to finish with a positive plus-minus for the game.

The Mavs were led by Anthony Davis, who finished with 29 points and 8 boards, while rookie Cooper Flagg added 19 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

Houston allowed Dallas to shoot a ridiculous 60 percent from the field, and you’re not going to win many games that way, especially when you turn the ball over 18 times as the Rockets did.

Houston is now off until Thursday, when they return to action against the L.A. Clippers. Hopefull, they’ll have a few guys back by then.