ROCKETS START 2-0

Houston guts out win in Sacramento to stay undefeated

The NBA started the season two weeks earlier in order to eliminate a lot of the back-to-backs, so naturally the Rockets started the 2017-18 season with a road back-to-back... and finished it in style. Despite launching bricks from beyond the arc, the Rockets gutted out a win against a young, upstart Kings squad in Sacramento, improving to 2-0 on the season with the 105-100 victory. The Rockets were playing without Chris Paul, who tweaked his knee in the game against the Warriors on Tuesday night. Clint Capela came up big in this one, hitting 10-12 shots for 22 points and 17 rebounds. James Harden shook off a poor shooting start to come alive in the fourth, finishing with 27 points and nine assists. Eric Gordon added 25 points. The Rockets shot just 12-45 (26.7%) from three-point range, but were saved by their free-throw shooting, where they hit 27-29 (93.1%) from the stripe. Capela and Nene Hilario were a combined 5-5.