![\"default-cbs-image\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/video-slate.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
HOUSTON (AP) Kevin Durant scored 25 points and the Houston Rockets<\/a> won their fifth straight game, beating the Utah Jazz<\/a> 140-106 on Friday night.<\/p>\n Durant shot 8 of 12 from the field and added five assists. It was the 45th time this season he’s scored 20 or more points while shooting 50% or better. That\u2019s second among NBA players behind Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has done it 47 times.<\/p>\n Amen Thompson had 21 points and Alperen Sengun scored 19 for the Rockets (48-29), who clinched a playoff spot Thursday. They are a game behind Denver for fourth place in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n Cody Williams led the Jazz with 27 points and 11 rebounds, but they shot just 5 of 27 from behind the 3-point line.<\/p>\n Utah (21-57) has lost eight consecutive games and 12 of 13.<\/p>\n Houston scored the first five points and never trailed. Tari Eason capped an 11-3 run with less than three minutes left in the first quarter to push the lead to 10, and the Rockets led by 12 after 12 minutes.<\/p>\n Utah scored the first five points of the second, but the Rockets answered with a 12-2 burst to push their lead to 17. The margin grew to 23 before Houston took a 19-point lead into halftime.<\/p>\n The Jazz whittled the lead down to 14, but the Rockets used a 19-4 run in the final 3:20 of the period to take a 29-point advantage into the fourth.<\/p>\n Jazz: At the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.<\/p>\n Rockets: At the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n \n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) Kevin Durant scored 25 points and the Houston Rockets won their fifth straight game, beating the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-697153","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-rockets","14":"tag-utah-jazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116344413096242299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697153","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=697153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}