{"id":694084,"date":"2026-04-02T15:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694084\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:20:16","slug":"reed-sheppard-nearly-made-rockets-history-last-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694084\/","title":{"rendered":"Reed Sheppard nearly made Rockets history last night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reed Sheppard<\/a> is beginning to figure out this whole NBA thing\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a much-improved sophomore campaign for the former Kentucky Wildcat. Sheppard\u2019s playing time has doubled and his scoring output tripled compared to his rookie season in 2024-25. But now the sharpshooter is earning the trust of his defensive-minded head coach. Sheppard has started seven of his last eight games for the Houston Rockets, none more impressive than what he did on Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n

Sheppard drilled a career-high nine three-pointers en route to a 119-113 win over the Bucks, one away from tying the franchise\u2019s record for most triples made in a single game. Four Houston players have hit 10 three-pointers in a single game: James Harden (three times), Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and Chandler Parsons. According to The Athletic\u2019s Will Guillroy<\/a>, Sheppard is now one of just eight NBA players to hit nine or more three-pointers before turning 22 years old. A pair of former Wildcats, Jamal Murray<\/a> and Tyrese Maxey<\/a>, are part of that group. <\/p>\n

Watch Sheppard work the Bucks in the video below. The London, KY, native finished the night with 27 points on 9-14 outside shooting to go along with six assists, four rebounds, and two steals without a single turnover in 37 minutes of action.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Sheppard has become a huge piece of the Rockets\u2019 success this season. After averaging just 4.4 points in year one, he\u2019s up to 13.7 points in year two. It\u2019s taken a while for Houston head coach Ime Udoka to fully believe in the young shooter, who is admittedly a bit of a liability on defense, but the offensive production is becoming too much to overlook. <\/p>\n

Over his last eight contests, seven as a starter, Sheppard has averaged 16 points, 5.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.1 steals in 30 minutes per game on shooting splits of 46.0\/44.4\/100. Houston went 6-2 during that stretch, including four straight victories. The Rockets now sit on a 47-29 record, good enough for fifth-place in the Western Conference standings. <\/p>\n

How Sheppard holds up in the playoffs will be the real test, but he\u2019s been passing all of them in the regular season. <\/p>\n

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR\u2019s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reed Sheppard is beginning to figure out this whole NBA thing\u2026 It\u2019s been a much-improved sophomore campaign for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,17677,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-694084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-reed-sheppard-23-north-laurel","14":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116335793197914483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}