A decisive 40-22 third quarter explosion propelled Denver past Houston, turning a close contest into an insurmountable deficit for the Rockets.
For two quarters in Denver, the Houston Rockets were not only hanging around- they were trading the lead and had tied it up six times.
The third quarter ended that conversation.
The Nuggets turned a competitive six-point halftime lead into a runaway with a 40-22 third-quarter explosion, flipping what had been a manageable game into a blowout that Houston couldn’t recover from.
The numbers from that 12-minute stretch tell the story clearly.
Denver shot 12-for-23 from the floor (52.2-percent) in the quarter while Houston struggled to keep pace offensively, finishing 11-for-25 (44-percent). More importantly, the Nuggets stretched the floor with efficient perimeter shooting, hitting 5-of-6 from three (83-percent) during the run.
Houston didn’t make a single three.
The Rockets went 0-for-8 from deep in the quarter, continuing what would become one of the coldest shooting nights from outside in franchise history.
The Nuggets’ offense flowed through Nikola Jokic, who continued filling the stat sheet while Denver’s role players punished Houston’s defensive rotations. Cameron Johnson knocked down both of his three-point attempts, Christian Braun added another two from deep, and Denver’s spacing forced Houston to scramble defensively on nearly every possession.
Tempo was Houston’s other detriment.
Denver pushed the pace repeatedly off Houston mistakes. The Rockets committed four turnovers in the quarter, several of them live-ball miscues that turned into easy transition opportunities for the Nuggets.
Meanwhile, Houston never found its offensive rhythm. Jabari Smith Jr. played limited minutes due to foul trouble for much of the night, while Reed Sheppard and the Rockets’ perimeter shooters continued to struggle from distance, allowing Denver to collapse defensively without much consequence.
By the time the quarter ended, the scoreboard had shifted dramatically.
What had been a 53-47 game at halftime became a 93-69 deficit entering the fourth, and the rest of the night became little more than formality.
In a matchup that began tightly contested, the third quarter was where the Nuggets broke it open, and where the Rockets’ night effectively ended. By the last frame, it was time to let the benches practice.