INDIANAPOLIS — Alperen Sengun matched his season high with 39 points, and Jabari Smith Jr. added 19 to help the short-handed Houston Rockets overcome the absence of All-Star forward Kevin Durant to beat the Indiana Pacers 118-114 on Monday.
Durant sat out, coach Ime Udoka said, after spraining his left ankle when he stepped on a fan's foot. The Rockets already were missing center Steven Adams, who is expected to miss the rest of this season following surgery on his injured left ankle, so Sengun did the heavy lifting.
He made 13 of 25 from the field and 13 of 18 from the free-throw line including 8 of 12 during the fourth quarter and grabbed 16 rebounds. Houston won its third straight, got its fifth victory in six games and captured its third straight on the road.
All-Star forward Pascal Siakam finished with 27 points and Bennedict Mathurin added 25 to lead the Pacers, who charged back from a 12-point deficit in the third quarter to take the lead. But they didn't have quite enough to extend their winning streak to a season-best three straight.
Initially, the healthier Pacers took advantage of Houston's missing pieces.
They controlled most of the first half before allowing Houston to charge back with a 17-4 spurt late. And when replay review waved off what appeared to be Siakam's buzzer-beating 3-pointer, Indiana was staring at a 63-56 halftime deficit.
Houston continued pulling away early in the second half, using a 12-5 run to build a 75-63 lead. Indiana answered with nine straight points then retook the lead, 81-79, lead on a nifty pass from Jarace Walker to Siakam on a fast break with 2:27 left in the third quarter.
It remained essentially a one or two possession game until Sengun's free throws fueled Houston's late 12-2 run to make it 109-101 with 4:59 to go.
Hornets 102, Pelicans 95
In Charlotte, LaMelo Ball overcame an early head-to-head collision with coach Charles Lee to score 24 points, and the surging Charlotte Hornets fought back from a 22-point deficit to beat the New Orleans Pelicans 102-95 on Monday for their seventh straight win.
Kon Knueppel added 17 points, hitting four 3s, and Brandon Miller and Grant Williams each scored 16 as Charlotte pulled within a half-game of the Atlanta Hawks for the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Hornets overcame 17 turnovers while matching their longest winning streak since March 2016.
Trey Murphy III scored 27 points to lead the Pelicans, who have lost six of their last nine. Zion Williamson finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Derik Queen had 16 points.
Ball left the game briefly in the first quarter with an eye laceration after banging heads with Lee as Ball was trying to save an errant pass from going out of bounds.
He returned a few minutes later and scored 18 points on three 3s in the first half, but the Hornets still found themselves trailing 64-49 at the break after shooting 7 of 30 from beyond 3-point range and committing 10 turnovers.
Charlotte stormed back to take the lead in the fourth quarter on a blow-by drive and two-handed dunk by Ball.
The Hornets later pushed the lead to nine when Miller, the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, picked Herbert Jones' pocket at midcourt and raced in for a soaring one-handed dunk.