The Houston Rockets’ clutch play down the stretch continued on Monday night. They used a fourth-quarter surge to hold on and beat the New York Knicks 109-97 at the Toyota Center.

Houston got out of the gates quickly thanks largely to Fred Van Vleet who had his best game of the young season.

VanVleet had 14 first-quarter points as he knocked out his shooting woes to finish with 19 points on 8-14 from the field.

Coming out of the gates strong, the Rockets led 26-31 after the first quarter. Houston had a chance to go up by more heading into halftime but a late second-quarter run by the Knicks saw them take just a 61-56 lead into the locker room.

New York had a strong performance in the second half, cutting the Rockets lead down to as little as one.

It was the young duo of Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun who propelled the Rockets to victory in this one.

Sengun took over the fourth quarter to finish with a team-leading 25 points and 14 rebounds. The Rockets big man scored ten of his 25 points in the final frame.

Jalen Green had an off night by his standards finishing with just 15 points but it was about when he scored those 15 points that mattered.

Green hit two clutch 3’s in the fourth quarter including the dagger.

With Houston up 97-102, Green drained a stepback three to put the Rockets up by seven with less than a minute to go.

That shot was followed by a huge driving dunk from Amen Thompson in Houston’s biggest sequence of the night.

Thompson had another strong game finishing with 12 points off the bench to join VanVleet, Sengun, Green, and Dillion Brooks in double figures.

3rd overall pick in the 2024 draft Reed Sheppard had the best night of his young NBA career as he finished with 7 points in 14 minutes.

Sheppard was able to knock down a three and hit an impressive dribble pull-up as part of his strong night.

Houston will be back in action tomorrow night when they take on the San Antonio Spurs for the third time in eight games this season.