The New Orleans Pelicans, last in the Western Conference, seek their first three-game winning streak of the season when they host the Houston Rockets on Thursday.
The Pelicans snapped a seven-game losing skid — their third stretch with at least six consecutive losses — with a 143-120 home rout of Portland on Dec. 11. They followed that up with a 114-104 win on Sunday at Chicago, the Pelicans’ first road victory since Nov. 5.
Trey Murphy III, who was experiencing a breakout 2024-25 before a season-ending shoulder injury in March, has been a bright spot amid New Orleans’ struggles in 2025-26. He posted his fourth double-double of the season in Sunday’s win, going for 20 points and 10 rebounds, and has scored at least 20 points in each of the last six contests.
Murphy leads the team with 6.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, while his 21.1 points per game are best among all Pelicans who’ve made at least 12 appearances. Teammate Zion Williamson has averaged 21.7 points in 11 games and notched 18 points on Sunday coming off the bench for the first time in his six-year career.
The game in Chicago marked Williamson’s return from an right adductor injury that sidelined him for two weeks.
“Injuries suck. There’s no other way to put it,” Williamson told reporters. “It’s not fun. Rehabbing’s not fun, either. But over the summer, me putting in work in my body allows me, if something does happen … (to) rehab not just faster, but at a more efficient rate.”
Williamson dropped a reported 40-50 pounds during the offseason after having missed 52 games in 2024-25, 53 games in 2022-23 and not playing at all in 2021-22.
Thursday’s matchup is the first between New Orleans and Houston this season and continues a stretch with 10 of 13 games at home for the Pelicans. The Rockets, meanwhile, head into their second date of a six-game road swing.
Houston began the road trip on Monday with a 128-125 overtime loss at Denver despite Rockets center Alperen Sengun’s 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Sengun averages 23.5 points — second only to Kevin Durant’s 24.8 per contest — with team highs of 9.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game.
Durant, a former Most Valuable Player, 15-time All-Star and 11-time All-NBA honoree, joined the Rockets in the offseason. He offered high praise for Sengun in comparison to Denver’s three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
“You can tell these guys never wanted to be traditional players,” he told reporters on Monday. “They probably grew up watching shooting guards, wings, handle the ball, shoot the ball, and they wanted to incorporate that into their games.
“A lot of coaches try to put them in a box, but they continue to break through that.”
Sengun and fellow Houston big man Jabari Smith Jr., who averages 15.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, are also defensive tone-setters for the Rockets’ yield of 111.2 points per contest. That ranked third-best in the NBA through Tuesday’s games.
Sengun averages 1.5 steals and a team-high one blocked shot per game working in tandem with Smith on the interior. Houston also has seen consistent defensive contributions on the perimeter from Josh Okogie and Reed Sheppard, both averaging more than a steal an outing.
