Nets lose in Houston as Harden has double-double
James Harden scored 20 of his 37 points in the first quarter to lead the Houston Rockets to a 117-103 win over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Monday night.
Harden added 10 rebounds and eight assists to guide the Rockets to their fifth straight win. When he took a break with 1:28 remaining in the first quarter, he was outscoring the Nets 20-17 by himself, not to mention four assists at that point.
He was 5-for- 5 from 3-point range in the first quarter and finished 8-for-13. Clint Capela added 20 points for Houston, and Chris Paul had a season-high 14 assists on “Chris Paul Bobblehead Night” at the Toyota Center.
For the Nets, Isaiah Whitehead led scorers with 24 points off the bench. Spencer Dinwiddie had 14 points, Caris LeVert had 13 and Sean Kilpatrick added 12. Coming off of a 98-88 win in Memphis on Sunday night, Brooklyn has lost four of its last five.
l The Memphis Grizzlies fired coach David Fizdale, with the team at 7-12 and a day after he benched center Marc Gasol for the fourth quarter of an eighth straight loss.
General manager Chris Wallace announced the move. Associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been named interim coach.
Gasol, given a maximum deal by the Grizzlies in July 2015, sat throughout the fourth quarter of a 98-88 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday.
The firing caught the NBA by surprise. Dwyane Wade, who played with the Miami Heat when Fizdale was an assistant coach, wrote on Twitter that he needed answers.
LeBron James retweeted a comment on Twitter calling the firing so stunning that the writer triplechecked the original ESPN report to make sure he wasn’t being duped by a fake account.
Terrell Suggs led an aggressive Baltimore defense that kept visiting Houston out of the end zone for the final 51 minutes, and the Ravens went deep in the playbook on offense to squeeze out a 23-16 win over the Texans.
The Ravens forced three turnovers, two in the final five minutes. After Suggs stripped the ball from quarterback Tom Savage and Baltimore recovered, Justin Tucker kicked a field goal with 2:53 remaining for a seven-point cushion. Anthony Levine then intercepted a Savage pass to clinch it.
Suggs had two sacks and Alex Collins ran for 60 yards and a TD.
l Oakland receiver Michael Crabtree and Denver cornerback Aqib Talib were suspended two games each without pay fighting during Sunday’s game.
The fight during Oakland’s 21-14 win over the Broncos was a continuation of a dispute that started last season when Talib ripped Crabtree’s chain off during the season finale. Crabtree missed the first game between the teams this year but didn’t wait long to seek revenge. Crabtree punched Denver cornerback Chris Harris Jr. while blocking him on the first play of Oakland’s second drive. He then aggressively blocked Talib on a running play and drove him to the ground on the Broncos’ sideline on the following play, starting the brawl.