Jalen Green Scores Career-High in Win Against Timberwolves
On Monday night, Jalen Green had a career-high 42-point game that was key in snapping the Houston Rockets’ 13-game losing streak. The Rockets bested the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-114. This was the first win of 2023 for the team that has struggled to get a win for nearly a month.
This win was especially meaningful for Green who struggled Saturday night against the Timberwolves, shooting 3 for 13 with six turnovers. Green, who was the second overall pick during the 2021 NBA draft, was electric during Monday night’s game, shooting 15 of 25. He is now the sixth player to have recorded three 40-point games aged 20 or younger.
When asked how the game made him feel, Green said, “It feels good,” he said. “My guys relied on me, coaches relied on me. We needed that. We were desperate for it. We came out and executed.”
“The goal for myself is to be one of the best players in the NBA,” Green continued. “I know I’m young, but at the end of the day, it’s all built on growth and learning the game.”
Coach Stephen Silas talked about Green’s performances saying, “He [Green] was ready for tonight. It was time for us to really just buckle down and have a focused game for 48 minutes and he [Green] was the leader of that tonight…There were a bunch of guys who were super, super focused tonight. If you think about this game compared to [the] last game, we still turned it over…we still didn’t make enough free throws but it was the mental fortitude that we showed to win the game.”
Silas continued saying, “We’re a work in progress for sure. We still made mistakes…but we played through them tonight and that’s the important thing.”
Desperation was the theme of the night as Rookie Tari Eason shared talking about the team’s mindset prior to the game. “I just told the team before the game, just be desperate,” Eason revealed. “And I think that’s what we did tonight. Everybody played desperate. Everybody played their tails off.”
Eason, who has started the past two games, had an impactful performance with 11 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.
When asked about when he said to the team after the game, Silas recalled, “I told them I was proud of them [and] I told them that’s what it takes to win. It takes that concentration, it takes that focus, it takes that attention to detail…”
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