Houston won by 32 in Milwaukee without their starting centre, and the 5-0 start is beginning to look structural

The absences were supposed to be the story. Houston arrived in Milwaukee on Wednesday without Alperen Sengun, sidelined with lower back soreness, and without Steven Adams, the two centres who anchor everything the Rockets do inside. Instead the Rockets produced their most complete performance of the young season, beating the Bucks 132-100 at Fiserv Forum to open 5-0 for the first time since 2014-15, and only the sixth time in franchise history. Milwaukee's coach admitted afterwards that he had not prepared his team. The scoreboard had already said it.

The game broke in the second quarter and never mended. After a tight first quarter that Houston edged 23-21, the Rockets outscored the Bucks 34-14 in the second, turning a contest into a procession before half time. Fred VanVleet then removed any doubt in the third, scoring 15 straight points on his way to 24 with six rebounds and five assists. Amen Thompson added 23 and Kevin Durant a quiet 18, the kind of line a star posts when the system around him is doing the heavy lifting. Houston won the third 38-34 and the fourth 37-31, which means Milwaukee never won a quarter after the first.

What makes the result worth more than an October scoreline is who was missing. Sengun is Houston's offensive hub, the player their half court sets run through, and Adams is their insurance policy on the glass. Winning by 32 on the road without either says the Rockets' defence and their guard play travel independently of their centres, and that is the trait that survives a long season, when somebody is always hurt. Five games is a small sample and every unbeaten start in October comes with that warning attached, but the shape of this one, a blowout built on a 20 point quarter swing rather than a shooting fluke, is harder to wave away.

Milwaukee's side of the ledger is the mirror image. The Bucks are 1-4, got 23 points from Tyler Herro and very little resistance from anyone, and heard their own coach take the blame in public, which is what coaches do once, early, before the blame starts travelling. A 32 point home loss in the season's second week does not end anything, but it sets the terms of every conversation around the team until the record repairs itself.

Our call is that Houston are real contenders in the West this season, and this game, not the record, is the evidence. Contenders are the teams whose floor stays high on the nights their best structure is missing, and the Rockets just won a road game by 32 with their starting centre in street clothes. Watch the return fixture list rather than the streak: if Houston are still defending like this when Sengun is back running the offence, the 5-0 start will read in March the way it reads now, not as a hot week but as the first accurate sighting of what this team is.