{"id":66389,"date":"2024-03-07T08:42:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T13:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=66389"},"modified":"2024-03-07T19:04:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T00:04:57","slug":"rockets-alperen-sengun-drops-never-before-seen-statline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/07\/rockets-alperen-sengun-drops-never-before-seen-statline\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Rising Star Drops Never-Before-Seen Statline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All Houston Rockets center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sengual01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alperen Sengun<\/a> does to start his week is make history. First, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/06\/rockets-star-alperen-sengun-goes-off-for-career-night-in-rockets-win-over-wembanyama-and-spurs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">scoring a career-high 45 points<\/a> against projected Rookie of the Year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, and making it look easy. Then, tallying 25 points, 19 rebounds, two steals, and a career-high 14 assists against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. Sengun is the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/statmuse\/status\/1765574398528905404?s=46&amp;t=wi4lwy44ptAPzCOfNGn4lw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first center in NBA history<\/a> to reach those numbers in a single game.<\/p>\n<h2>Alperen Sengun Drops Never-Before-Seen Statline<\/h2>\n<p>Expecting for their offseason signings to lift them into the playoffs, the Houston Rockets have had an underwhelming 2023-24 campaign. Still, in what\u2019s been a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/29\/houston-rockets-jalen-green-growing-increasingly-frustrated\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">growingly gloomy season<\/a>, there have been several silver linings in their graying skies. Chief among them has been the play of third-year center Alperen Sengun, who has emerged as Houston\u2019s go-to scorer.<\/p>\n<p>A terrific low-post presence thanks to his nimble footwork, soft touch, and creativity, Sengun has shown the ability to stretch the floor out to 3-point range. Like Hall of Fame forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nowitdi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dirk Nowitzki<\/a> and 2-time NBA MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a>, Sengun has even developed a unique set jumper. Efficient, effective, and productive, Sengun\u2019s play has been the definition of outstanding.<\/p>\n<p>His all-time great performance against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Monday (Mar. 5) underscored his ability to put points on the board.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Career highs in points, field goal attempts, and steals.<\/p>\n<p>Watch <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alperennsengun?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@alperennsengun<\/a> WORK \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4UypZVxNq2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4UypZVxNq2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HoustonRockets\/status\/1765228813657542657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>His showing against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a>-led Los Angeles Clippers the next night highlighted his all-around dominance. To that point, only <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StatMamba\/status\/1765580580240900494?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">three centers in NBA history<\/a> have recorded more assists in a single game than Sengun did last night. With playmaking big men regaining popularity over the past few seasons, the 21-year-old is a prototypical modern-day center.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he\u2019s more than that. He\u2019s timeless.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">45-point career high last night&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>23 PTS, 19 REB, 14 AST triple-double tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Alperen Sengun is ascending for the Rockets \ud83d\ude80 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/E6svYaxEe4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/E6svYaxEe4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1765582493980205328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A Most Improved Player candidate throughout the season, Sengun is even receiving praise as the best Turkish player of all time, ahead of even former first-round pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/turkohe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hedo Turkoglu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a bit of basketball irony, Turkoglu was selected 16th overall, like Sengun. In his eighth season, he emerged as the league\u2019s Most Improved Player, averaging career-highs of 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game. Averaging 21.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game, Sengun is putting up even better numbers than that.<\/p>\n<p>With 20 games remaining on their schedule, Sengun is finishing strong. He has at least another month left in his career season. As the clock winds down, there\u2019s only one question: What history will Sengun make next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun does to start his week is make history. First, scoring a career-high 45 points against projected Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, and making it look easy. Then, tallying 25 points, 19 rebounds, two steals, and a career-high 14 assists against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. Sengun is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":66521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1608,62,3],"tags":[4293,4669],"class_list":["post-66389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rockets","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}