Rockets beat the Mavericks 110-99 to snap a 2-game skid

HOUSTON (AP) — Alperen Sengun had 23 points, Jalen Green added 22 and the Houston Rockets built a big lead early in the second half and sailed to a 110-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.

Dillon Brooks had 19 points and Cam Whitmore added 18 to help the Rockets get back on track after dropping two straight.

The Mavericks led by four midway through the second quarter before Houston used a 21-8 run to take a 61-52 lead into halftime. Green made eight points in that stretch and Whitmore added two 3-pointers.

The Rockets then opened the second half with an 11-4 spurt that pushed it to 72-56 with nine minutes left in the third.

Houston was up by 14 entering the fourth and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the quarter.

Kyrie Irving (shoulder), Klay Thompson (illness) and Dereck Lively II (hip) returned after sitting out Monday. But Naji Marshall remained out serving a four-game suspension for his role in a fight against the Suns.

Quentin Grimes led the Mavericks with 17 points off the bench. Thompson and Irving added 16 each.

Mavericks: Lost for the third time in four games playing without Luka Doncic, who strained his calf on Christmas Day. They’ll need to find a way to win without the star, who will be out at least a month.

Rockets: Didn’t miss a beat without the bench scoring of Amen Thompson, who served the first of a two-game suspension for a fight with Miami’s Tyler Herro Sunday night.

Houston’s 32-12 run to end the first half and start the second half.

Houston’s victory was helped by making 18 of 23 free throws compared to just 8 of 16 by Dallas.

Both teams are back in action Friday night. Dallas hosts Cleveland, and Houston hosts Boston.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Dallas Mavericks' Kyrie Irving, left, shoots as Houston Rockets' Dillon Brooks defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Dallas Mavericks' Dereck Lively II (2) looks to shoot as Houston Rockets' Alperen Sengun defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Dallas Mavericks' Quentin Grimes (5) is fouled by Houston Rockets' Alperen Sengun (28) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Dallas Mavericks' Dwight Powell (7) is fouled by Houston Rockets' Jae'Sean Tate (8) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Houston Rockets' Jabari Smith Jr. dunks the ball against the Dallas Mavericks during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Houston Rockets' Alperen Sengun, bottom, is fouled by Dallas Mavericks' Dereck Lively II during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Houston Rockets' Alperen Sengun (28) loses the ball as Dallas Mavericks' Kyrie Irving (11) and Dereck Lively II defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Houston Rockets' Alperen Sengun (28) is fouled by Dallas Mavericks' Daniel Gafford (21) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Dallas Mavericks' Jaden Hardy (1) has his shot blocked by Houston Rockets' Jalen Green (4) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Pentagon said Thursday that it is changing the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes so it concentrates on “reporting for our warfighters” and no longer includes “woke distractions.”

That message, in a social media post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's spokesman, is short on specifics and does not mention the news outlet's legacy of independence from government and military leadership. It comes a day after The Washington Post reported that applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes were being asked what they would do to support President Donald Trump's policies.

Stars and Stripes traces its lineage to the Civil War and has reported news about the military either in its newspaper or online steadily since World War II, largely to an audience of service members stationed overseas. Roughly half of its budget comes from the Pentagon and its staff members are considered Defense Department employees.

The outlet's mission statement emphasizes that it is “editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command” and that it is unique among news organizations tied to the Defense Department in being “governed by the principles of the First Amendment.”

Congress established that independence in the 1990s after instances of military leadership getting involved in editorial decisions. During Trump's first term in 2020, Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried to eliminate government funding for Stars and Stripes — to effectively shut it down — before he was overruled by the president.

Hegseth's spokesman, Sean Parnell, said on X Thursday that the Pentagon “is returning Stars and Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.” He said the department will “refocus its content away from woke distractions.”

“Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Parnell wrote. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”

Parnell did not return a message seeking details. The Daily Wire reported, after speaking a Pentagon spokeswoman, that the plan is to have all Stars and Stripes content written by active-duty service members. Currently, Congress has mandated that the publication's publisher and top editor be civilians, said Max Lederer, its publisher.

The Pentagon also said that half of the outlet's content would be generated by the Defense Department, and that it would no longer publish material from The Associated Press or Reuters news services.

Also Thursday, the Pentagon issued a statement in the Federal Register that it would eliminate some 1990s era directives that governed how Stars and Stripes operates. Lederer said it's not clear what that would mean for the outlet's operations, or whether the Defense Department has the authority to do so without congressional authorization.

The publisher said he believes that Stars and Stripes is valued by the military community precisely because of its independence as a news organization. He said no one at the Pentagon has communicated to him what it wants from Stars and Stripes; he first learned of its intentions from reading Parnell's social media post.

“This will either destroy the value of the organization or significantly reduce its value,” Lederer said.

Jacqueline Smith, the outlet's ombudsman, said Stars and Stripes reports on matters important to service members and their families — not just weapons systems or war strategy — and she's detected nothing “woke” about its reporting.

“I think it's very important that Stars and Stripes maintains its editorial independence, which is the basis of its credibility,” Smith said. A longtime newspaper editor in Connecticut, Smith's role was created by Congress three decades ago and she reports to the House Armed Services Committee.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration to impose restrictions on journalists. Most reporters from legacy news outlets have left the Pentagon rather than to agree to new rules imposed by Hegseth that they feel would give him too much control over what they report and write. The New York Times has sued to overturn the regulations.

Trump has also sought to shut down government-funded outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that report independent news about the world in countries overseas.

Also this week, the administration raided the home of a Washington Post journalist as part of an investigation into a contractor accused of stealing government secrets, a move many journalists interpreted as a form of intimidation.

The Post reported that applicants to Stars and Stripes were being asked how they would advance Trump's executive orders and policy priorities in the role. They were asked to identify one or two orders or initiatives that were significant to them. That raised questions about whether it was appropriate for a journalist to be given what is, in effect, a loyalty test.

Smith said it was the government's Office of Personnel Management — not the newspaper — that was responsible for the question on job applications and said it was consistent with what was being asked of applicants for other government jobs.

But she said it was not something that should be asked of journalists. “The loyalty is to the truth, not the administration,” she said.

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

US soldier Sgt. John Hubbuch of Versailles, Ky., one of the members of NATO led-peacekeeping forces in Bosnia reads Stars and Stripes newspaper on Sunday Feb. 14, 1999. (AP Photo/Amel Emric, File)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon during a welcome ceremony for Japanese Defense Minister Shinjirō Koizumi at the Pentagon, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf/)

FILE - A GI with the U.S. 25th division reads Stars and Stripes newspaper at Cu Chi, South Vietnam on Sept. 10, 1969. (AP Photo/Mark Godfrey)