The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics 109-93 at Toyota Center on Monday night, Nov. 2, and moved to 7-1. That ties them with Philadelphia for the best record in the league after Memphis lost, 135-134 in overtime at New Orleans.

Their point differential is the best in the league by a wide margin. Houston has outscored its eight opponents by 103 points, 12 more than Minnesota and 13 more than Memphis.

Point differential, 2026-27 through Nov. 2

Philadelphia shares the best record but is more than 50 points behind Houston in margin. Houston’s seven wins came by 18, 4, 7, 10, 32, 21 and 16 points, and the loss was by 5.

Houston opened the season with a win over Dallas. Since then it has won on the road on consecutive nights in San Antonio and Atlanta, won by 32 in Milwaukee and lost one game that got away in the fourth quarter.

1. Oct. 21Rockets 128, Dallas 110. Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. score 30 each, and Houston wins the second quarter 38-12.
2. Oct. 23At San Antonio, 114-110. Alperen Sengun has 29 points and seven assists.
3. Oct. 24At Atlanta, 121-114, on the second night of a back-to-back. Reed Sheppard hits five threes and scores 19.
4. Oct. 26Atlanta again, 120-110. Sengun scores 29 with 9 rebounds and 9 assists and hurts his back.
5. Oct. 28At Milwaukee, 132-100, without Sengun. Fred VanVleet has 24 and Houston leads by 35.
6. Oct. 30At Dallas, 116-111 loss. Houston leads by 8 after three quarters and loses the fourth 40-27.
7. Oct. 31Oklahoma City, 119-98. Smith scores 30 and Marcus Smart makes seven threes.
8. Nov. 2Boston, 109-93. Sengun scores 26 on 12-of-15 shooting and adds 10 assists.

Of the 103 points of margin, 73 were built in the second quarter alone. Houston has scored 247 second-quarter points and allowed 174, a margin of 9.1 a game, and it has won that quarter in six of eight games.

The first and third quarters are each worth 16 points. The fourth quarter is the only one Houston has lost, by 2 points over eight games.

Houston's margin by quarter, eight games

The three biggest second quarters were 38-12 against Dallas on opening night, 34-14 at Milwaukee and 31-17 at Dallas on Oct. 30. The Rockets lost that game anyway.

Alperen Sengun has played in six of the eight games and is averaging 23.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 7.8 assists in them. His back tightened in the Oct. 26 win over Atlanta, and imaging showed a mild strain.

He missed the next two games, at Milwaukee and at Dallas, and came back against Oklahoma City.

Sengun's points in the six games he played

Houston is 6-0 with him, with a margin of 76 points, or 12.7 a game. Without him it is 1-1: a 32-point win in Milwaukee and a five-point loss in Dallas.

Two games is a small sample, but the nights he was out were the biggest win and the only loss.

Houston led Dallas 51-44 at halftime and 84-76 after three quarters, then lost 116-111. Dallas outscored it 40-27 in the fourth quarter and Kyrie Irving scored 16 of his 35 in that stretch. Cooper Flagg had 33.

The Rockets were without Sengun and shot 7 of 29 from three, 24 percent, their worst mark of the season, while taking 20 offensive rebounds.

Houston's three-point percentage by game

No Rocket averages more than 24 points, but eight average at least 10. Durant has scored 166 points in all eight games, a 20.8 average, and Smith has two 30-point games, in the opener and against Oklahoma City.

The rotation has changed almost every night. VanVleet has missed two games, Smart three, Sheppard three and Sengun two, and Steven Adams has played in only one.

Points per game, through Nov. 2

Amen Thompson averages 16.0 points and 6.1 rebounds in 32.6 minutes, and Tari Eason has come off the bench for 10.4 points and 5.9 rebounds. Bogdan Bogdanovic has scored 50 points in 13.1 minutes a night.

The other half of the margin is on defense. Houston has allowed 106.4 points a game, and opponents have made only 93 of 311 threes, 29.9 percent. That is a much lower mark than the 39.1 percent Houston has hit itself.

Only Dallas, in the loss, made more than a third of its threes against the Rockets.

Opponents' three-point percentage against Houston

Milwaukee scored 100, Oklahoma City 98 and Boston 93. Atlanta made only 24 of 88 threes in its two games against Houston.

Houston hosts the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 8:30 p.m. ET, which is 3:30 a.m. Thursday in Cairo. Minnesota is 5-3 with the league’s second-best point differential, +91.

The Wolves’ margin is built on five wins by 12 to 26 points. Their three losses came by 2, 5 and 10.

Minnesota's margin by game

1. Wed, Nov. 4Minnesota at Houston, 8:30 p.m. ET.
2. Sat, Nov. 7At Phoenix, 9 p.m. ET. The Suns are 1-4.
3. Mon, Nov. 9Denver at Houston, 8:30 p.m. ET.
4. Wed, Nov. 11Golden State at Houston, 9:30 p.m. ET.