Ben DuBose

But the question is always, how do you respond when you get punched in the mouth, when you hit that level of adversity?

We heard Ime called him out in New Orleans, called a defensive effort embarrassing.

And boy, did they respond tonight, Dave.

So the Nuggets average 126 points per game.

This was their lowest scoring game of the year.

But I think you can almost throw out the fourth quarter because over half of it was garbage time with the Rockets up 20 plus points midway through.

Like the first three quarters, they held the Nuggets to 66 points per

And even with that fourth quarter where the Nuggets put up 35 largely in garbage time, it was still easily their lowest scoring game of the season.

So the Rockets responded defensively with regards to their intensity.

I thought Josh Okogie deserves a shout out early in the game.

The threes he hit.

A couple of steals that he had in the first half, the transition play, that sort of sparked the Rockets after they were a little bit lethargic.

But I just think in a situation like this, it comes down to your leaders, your alphas.

On the court, that's Kevin Durant.

On the sidelines, that's Ime Udoka.

The Rockets, the other guys on that team, they got called out.

I think in the first quarter, it was pretty clear that Kevin Durant was taking this game much more seriously than one of 82, and he acknowledged it in his postgame interview with Vanessa Richardson, talking about how they brought more juice, more energy.

There was a play in the first quarter where you could see Kevin was visibly frustrated with Amin Thompson for not –

going where he wanted him to go on the floor.

And so it's always useful to see how does your team respond, especially when so many of your rotation guys are young, when they get called out.