The Rockets beat Bucks 132-100 on Wednesday night, October 28, 2026, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, and Houston is still unbeaten. Fred VanVleet scored 24 points, Amen Thompson added 23 and Kevin Durant had 18 as the Rockets improved to 5-0, while Milwaukee fell to 1-4. Houston did it without its All-Star center Alperen Sengun, who sat out with low back soreness, and still won by 32 points on the road.
The game was close for one quarter and then it was not. Houston led 23-21 after the first quarter, then outscored Milwaukee 34-14 in the second to take a 57-35 lead into halftime. The Rockets led 95-69 after three quarters and by as many as 35 points in the game, according to the box score.
How Rockets beat Bucks 132-100 in the second quarter
The second quarter decided the game. Milwaukee scored just 14 points in the period, and through the first 10 minutes of the quarter the Bucks had scored only seven points on 3-of-20 shooting, including 1-of-11 from three-point range, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s live coverage. Houston, by contrast, scored 34 points in the quarter while shooting 64 percent from the field.
That run turned a two-point game into a rout before halftime. The first quarter had been tight: Houston’s 23-21 lead came with help from six Milwaukee turnovers that led to five Rockets points, and Tyler Herro led Milwaukee with eight points in the opening period while Thompson had 11 for Houston. Once the second quarter started, Milwaukee’s offense stalled and Houston kept scoring, and the Bucks never got the margin back under control.
Milwaukee did trim a 22-point halftime deficit to 15 early in the third quarter, but Houston answered and led by as many as 30 late in the quarter, taking a 95-69 advantage into the fourth. The final quarter, 37-31 to Houston, only confirmed what the second quarter had already decided.
VanVleet, Thompson and Durant lead a balanced Houston attack
VanVleet led Houston with 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including four three-pointers, to go with six rebounds and five assists. Thompson scored 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, and Durant added 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
The bench helped, too. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three-point range, and Clint Capela added 10 points and eight rebounds. Jabari Smith Jr. scored 14 points. As a team, Houston shot 54.8 percent from the field (46 of 84) and 44.7 percent from three-point range (17 of 38), with 27 assists and 10 blocks. Milwaukee shot 40.2 percent from the field and 29.3 percent from three, with 19 assists and three blocks.
For Milwaukee, Herro led the way with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including four three-pointers. Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 19 points and four rebounds, and Brayden Burries scored 10 points with five rebounds off the bench. No other Buck reached double figures.
Winning without Sengun
The most encouraging part of the win for Houston may be who was not on the floor. Sengun, who entered the night averaging 24.5 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, was out with low back soreness after his back tightened up following Monday’s win over Atlanta, when he had 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Imaging revealed a mild strain, and Rockets coach Ime Udoka said, in comments reported by Rockets Wire, “Hopefully it’s short-term, a few games at most.”
Houston was also without center Steven Adams and guard Marcus Smart, both listed as out with injuries in the box score. Capela and the rest of the frontcourt filled the gap well enough that the absence never showed in the score. Milwaukee, meanwhile, came in off its first win of the season, a 110-102 home win over Indiana on Monday in which Herro had 23 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, according to Sports Illustrated. That momentum lasted one quarter against Houston.
Analysis: what a 5-0 start really says about Houston
This is a clearly labeled analysis section, not a report of a new result. A 5-0 start in late October does not win anything, and the schedule will get harder. But the way Houston won this game matters more than the record alone. The Rockets beat a team that had just found some confidence, on the road, without their best playmaking big man, and they did it with balance rather than one hot scorer: five players in double figures, efficient three-point shooting, and a defense that held Milwaukee to 14 points in a quarter.
The concern, if there is one, is the same one that followed Houston into Milwaukee: health in the frontcourt. Sengun’s absence is described as short-term, but a mild back strain is the kind of injury that can linger, and Adams was also out. Houston’s depth covered for one night. Whether it can cover for a week is the next question, and the answer will shape how seriously this unbeaten start should be taken.
For Milwaukee, the loss is a reminder of how thin the margin is. The Bucks had a chance to build on their first win and instead were outscored by 20 points in a single quarter. Herro has now led Milwaukee in scoring in most of its games, but one scorer and a cold shooting night from the rest of the lineup is not enough against a team shooting the way Houston did.
What to watch next
Houston visits the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, October 30, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Watch whether Sengun returns for that game — his next opportunity to suit up after Wednesday, according to Rockets Wire — and whether Houston’s bench shooting travels. Milwaukee hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday, October 31, at 8:00 p.m. ET, and the question there is simpler: can the Bucks avoid another second quarter like this one, and can anyone besides Herro give them a second reliable scoring option?
For more on Tuesday night’s other big NBA result, see our Celtics recap: https://ussportsmedia.com/celtics-beat-nets-125-124-overtime/ — plus this week’s other major results: https://ussportsmedia.com/brewers-beat-rays-10-1-world-series-game-3/ and https://ussportsmedia.com/cowboys-beat-eagles-38-21-monday-night-football/
Sources: CornerWire (final score, quarter scores, leading scorers and box-score lines, records, next games), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (first-quarter, second-quarter and third-quarter flow), Rockets Wire / USA Today (Sengun injury, Udoka quote, season averages, next opportunity to play) and Sports Illustrated (Milwaukee’s Monday win over Indiana, Houston’s 4-0 start entering the game).
