HOUSTON – Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet each had 21 points and the Houston Rockets built a huge lead early and cruised to a 127-100 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.

Houston never trailed and had built a 25-point lead by halftime. The Rockets had a 27-point lead when coach Ime Udoka cleared the bench with about 6½ minutes left.

Alperen Sengun scored 16 points for the Rockets, who won for the fourth time in five games. VanVleet had 10 assists and seven rebounds, both season highs, his best of the season.

Victor Wembanyama had 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the Spurs, who lost their second straight game. They played for the third straight season without coach Gregg Popovich, who is out indefinitely due to illness. Mitch Johnson steps in as interim coach while the 75-year-old Popovich, who did not travel with the team on this road trip, is out.

Takeaways

Spurs: San Antonio’s defense suffered Wednesday in its first game without top ball defender Jeremy Sochan, who suffered a fractured left thumb that will require surgery in Monday’s game. Newcomer Stephon Castle, who started in his place, has to step up as Sochan is likely to be out for an extended period of time.

Rockets: After failing to play consistently for four quarters in the last two games, Houston finally managed to put together a complete game against the Spurs.

Key moment

The Rockets had a lead of 7 with about five minutes left in the first quarter before a 7-0 run and VanVleet’s first five points made it 22-8. The Spurs didn’t get closer than 10 points after that.

Key statistics

The Rockets dominated inside and outscored the Spurs 66-46.

Next

San Antonio hosts Portland on Thursday night and the Rockets visit Oklahoma City on Friday night.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba