Jabari Smith Jr. breaks out of slump, leads Rockets to 119-110 victory over Pelicans

Jabari Smith Jr. had been slumping, no doubt. Badly enough that his poor peformances had been directly related to at least a few losses, and some fans had been growing impatient with the 22-year-old’s development. He answered some of those critics in the win over New Orleans.

Smith went off for 32 points, a career-high 7 three-pointers, 8 rebounds and a block to lead the Houston Rockets to a 119-110 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.

In addition, the Rockets also got 21 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals and a block from Alperen Sengun, and 20 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a block from Amen Thompson to help out Smith. Thompson, in particular, was 10-for-14 shooting from the field.

KD actually had some real help in this one, and it was needed, as the Houston’s leading scorer only put in 18 points on 5-for-18 from the field. He did also add 6 rebounds and 8 assists, as well as passed his idol Dirk Nowitzki for sixth in the all-time scoring leaderboards. KD was just a +3 in this one, the lowest mark of any of the Rockets starters.

The Rockets didn’t come out of this one unscathed, however, as center Steven Adams, who started in this game and finished with 5 points and 10 boards, took a nasty fall that could have resulted in major injury. Thankfully, Ime Udoka said after the game that it was a sprained ankle. However, Adams is dealing with some bad swelling and is going to miss some time.

As for the Pels, they were led by Trey Murphy with 21 points, and Zion Williamson put in 20 to help lead their team in scoring. The Pels shot 50 percent from the field, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Smith’s hot shooting from deep.

The Rockets have now won two in a row and move to 25-15 on the season. They currently stand in the fifth seed, just three games back of the second seed, but also just a game ahead of the Play-In group. They return to action on Tuesday, versus the San Antonio Spurs.