Rockets’ Jalen Green ties Kevin Durant and Luka Dončić with 40+ point game record before turning 21

Even though Houston practically gave up the game last night against the Spurs, leading by five points with only 57 seconds to play and finally lost the contest, they still can take pride in their young star Jalen Green, who added yet another match with 40+ points to his tally.

Green invaded the Kings’ rim relentlessly to drop 41 points in 37 minutes, showing off his scoring prowess yet again. And as he did, he joined stars Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant in the top three of most 40+ point games in the NBA for players 20 years old or younger. The reason he made the list last night is the best thing yet, since today is his 21st birthday!

Help us wish @JalenGreen a Happy Birthday 🥳

The big 21! pic.twitter.com/lPQ8qhJAqp

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) February 9, 2023

As Jalen has achieved this feat four times already in his young career, his record is only surpassed by Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards with five, and who other than the NBA’s highest scorer, LeBron James with an unbeatable eight times.

Jalen Green’s season-high so far is 42 points, which he made last month in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He also reached another 41-pointer in a loss to the Charlotte Hornets, also in January.

What makes this last record more special is that his efficiency against Sacramento was amazing, as he dropped 14 out of 22 shots from the field, resulting in a 66.7% and overcoming his attempts in other games. From the free throw he also scored 7 out of 9. It’s too bad his newest efficiency record wasn’t enough to beat the Kings, as they ended up losing by two points in the last seconds.

Let’s watch the shooting guard’s highlights of last night’s 40+ point record:

This now means Green is leading the Rockets this season with 21.6 points per contest, despite the fact that he is only actually dropping 41.1% of his shots from the floor.

Even though most of our favorite sport betting sites believe that the Rockets possess the worst odds in the entire league (+200,000) to win this year’s NBA Championship, at least the Texan squad can be excited to develop future stars in the making such as young Jalen.

Now Houston play the Miami Heat this Friday, February 10th in Miami’s FTX Arena at 7:00pm CST, as they try to slowly crawl out of the Western Conference’s last positions with 42 losses in 55 matches.

What’s going on with Houston in this transfer deadline?

Yet again, Houston is suffering some kind of deja vu as they continue to show reluctance to trade veteran shooting guard Eric Gordon, which has been a recurrent theme in the Rockets’ post-James Harden era.
As the Texan management are holding firm on their price of at least a first-round pick in return for Gordon, they are missing a lot of opportunities.

Houston now seems to be guaranteed to miss out on any sort of unprotected first-round pick for a player who would be a bench scorer on a contending team, unless they consider this infamous Gordon swap. If the Rockets actually do decide to make a move today, they could aspire to trade for one or two young wings, and even a veteran point guard.

So besides Gordon’s situation, one intriguing name emerged this week, as The Athletic’s Kelly Iko reported forward Jae’Sean Tate has “drawn interest from teams, including the Suns, Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards.” The small foward’s value makes sense as the 27-year-old is averaging 7.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists in only 20.4 minutes per game this campaign.