Player grades from Rockets’ dominant win over the Sacramento Kings

The Houston Rockets erased an early deficit on a career night from Austin Rivers to utterly humiliate the Sacramento Kings to improve to 4-1 in the bubble.

The Houston Rockets moved to 4-1 in the NBA restart after trouncing the Sacramento Kings 129-112 Sunday night. The Rockets, again without Russell Westbrook due to a quad bruise, won their second straight game by absolutely dominating the Kings in the second and third quarters.

The Kings, already eliminated from playoff contention after the Portland Trail Blazers’ victory over the Philadelphia 76ers earlier on Sunday, did not appear to take the game off after a 36-23 advantage at the end of the 1st quarter. The Kings would be outscored 70-35 in the middle two quarters before feasting on the Rockets’ bench in the fourth.

The Rockets, for the first time in the restart, won the rebound battle (48-41), which no doubt helped fuel the rout. However, the real story of the night was Austin Rivers’s career-high scoring outburst of 41 points.

The Kings had no answer for Rivers, who turned it back to his high school days when he would routinely demolish AAU competition in the same arena in which the NBA bubble resides.

Here are how the Rockets individually performed in the big 129-112 win.

Next: The Starters