One-man show rests
Harden has 36 but gets ample help from Paul, Green, Gordon in blowout
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If the Rockets were trying to show off a bit for the new guy, Iman Shumpert had to be impressed. If the Kings were demonstrating how valuable he had been, the Rockets had to take notice.
Or perhaps the Rockets showed only that they are still capable of producing one of those offensive nights when they pile up the points and are challenged only by their ability to pay
his streak of games scoring at least 30 points to 28 straight, three shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s secondlongest streak, when he opened the second half with a pair of 3-pointers. He finished with 36 points in 31½ minutes, making 8 of 13 3-pointers before sitting with nearly six minutes remaining.
The Rockets, however, got scoring from wherever they turned. Eric Gordon needed just 21 minutes to score 20 points. Gerald Green had a season-high 25 as the Rockets’ bench, which had so much trouble scoring in the thick of the injury problems, combined for 41 points.
Chris Paul put in a fourpoint play to give him 15 points to go with 11 assists in his first double-double in the five games since coming back from his strained hamstring. When Kenneth Faried hit his first 3-pointer with the Rockets, he had 13 points. In a game the Rockets played just eight players until rookie Isaiah Hartenstein played the final six minutes in a one-man clearing of the trade-depleted bench, the Rockets had six score in double figures.
With their 20-of-51 shooting from the 3-point line, the Rockets had their 10th game with at least 10 3pointers, matching their NBA record for a season with 29 games left.
The Rockets had to love just about everything about the first half, from the way they took target practice on their 3s to how desperately the Kings apparently missed Shumpert’s defense, given how it looked with him on his way to the Rockets.
Harden not only scored 25 first-half points, making 6 of 7 3-pointers. He found different ways to score than through most of his twomonth burst.
There was a four-point play when he banked in a 3-pointer from a wing through a foul. There was a wide-open 3 when Paul drove, drew the defense and found Harden oddly alone at the top of the 3-point arc. There even was a 3-pointer when the Kings went under a screen to let him fire away after he had already put in five 3s.
He was far from alone. Gordon, after sitting out on Monday with a sore knee, had 16 points in 13 first-half minutes, making 6 of 11 shots. Austin Rivers and Green combined for 22 off the bench, making 8 of 15 shots. The Rockets’ defense held the Kings to just 6-of-21 shooting in the second quarter when they outscored Sacramento 44-17.
When Harden opened the second half with consecutive 3s, the Rockets held a 37-point lead.
As has often been the case this season, this inspired the Rockets to slow down. Without the energy in their offense, they got stagnant, missed shots at the end of the shot clock and let the Kings pick up their pace.
The Kings knocked 15 points off the 37-point lead before Harden drove to a three-point play. When Rivers followed with a step-back 3, the Rockets led 96-68 with four minutes remaining before the fourth quarter.
With a 30-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Rockets had reached 100 in three quarters for the sixth time this season but ran into a problem they could not overcome.
When it was time to clear the bench, there was no one left there but Hartenstein to put in.