Rockets hold off Hornets after losing big lead
18-point 4th-quarter lead evaporates before Harden salts away 9th win in a row
The Rockets had every reason to expect James Harden to spend the final minutes, if not the entire fourth quarter on Tuesday night at Toyota Center, with his feet up.
The record book could remain closed for a night. The Rockets could take their 23-point first-half lead, or even their 18-point fourth-quarter cushion, and roll to their ninth consecutive victory with the sort of blowout that had been frequent last month but missing since.
The rout would have been nice, the Rockets agreed later. But it would not have taken a place in NBA history.
Instead, Harden had to drive the Rockets through the final 2½ minutes and past the Charlotte Hornets 121-114 with another history-making tripledouble.
With 40 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, Harden joined Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook and Pete Maravich as the only players to have 40-point triple-doubles in consecutive games.
“He can’t really be stopped,” Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said.
Harden seemed less impressed. He had triple-doubles in five of the past seven games. He has averaged 32.4 points, 11.4 assists and 9.9 rebounds during the winning streak. But he was unconcerned with any of those numbers.
“As long as I play the right way, man, and be unselfish and we win games, all that is going to come,” Harden said. “I don’t really put too much into it. I don’t think about it too much.
“If it happens, it happens. The most important thing is winning. It’s been a total turnaround from last year to this year. (Keep) winning and good things will come.”
The Rockets improved to 31-9 as they headed into their final game of the first half of the season. They did not get their 31st victory last season
until March 6 in their 63rd game.
They got the latest win, as with many others in the most recent winning streak, with help from a variety of sources.
With guard Eric Gordon out with a sprained left big toe (and not making the trip to Minnesota for Wednesday’s second half of the back-to-back), Corey Brewer scored a season-high 15 points off the bench, making seven of 10 shots.
“When Eric is out, the second unit is different,” Brewer said. “We run different stuff. I had to be aggressive. If you make a couple shots, the 3 is an easy shot. I made my first two or three layups. The basket got big.”
Big plays by Harrell
The Rockets also got a much-needed lift late in the game from Montrezl Harrell, who twice blocked Kemba Walker shots and put in a pair of free throws when the Rockets led by three points with 19.4 seconds left.
Yet, the Rockets needed Harden in the final two minutes to take care of a win that seemed certain only minutes earlier.
When the Rockets made one of 10 shots in a six-minute stretch of the fourth quarter, the Hornets rolled through a 21-2 run to the lead. Frank Kaminsky’s 3-pointer put Charlotte in front with 2½ minutes left.
The Rockets never missed another shot.
“We had to dig deep for that one,” Ariza said. “We got up big. We relaxed a little bit and they came back and started hitting shots. We had to really buck down and get stops and make plays at the end.”
After a timeout following Kaminsky’s fourth 3-pointer, Harden passed to Ryan Anderson for a 3 and the lead. He scored on a drive. He finished another drive. With the two free throws Harden added with 7.2 seconds left, he scored six points in the final two minutes and set up the 3 that put the Rockets in front to stay.
“He’s unbelievable,” Hornets forward Marvin Williams said. “There’s not enough good words in the English dictionary that can describe what he’s been doing. He’s literally making history, as Westbrook is as well. What they’ve been doing is putting an entire franchise on their back and playing at an extremely high level, both of them. It’s really fun to watch, and it’s great for the game of basketball.”
‘He’s ridiculous’
The Rockets seemed to enjoy it. On Tuesday, they needed it more than they could have imagined.
“Another triple-double,” Anderson said, feigning indifference. “No, he’s ridiculous. I was looking at the rebound statistics tonight. He had (almost) twice the number of rebounds as anyone else. That alone would be impressive. He’s pretty good, don’t you think?”