Harden pours in 40 in win
James Harden scored 40 points and finished with a triple-double as the Houston Rockets snapped the Denver Nuggets’ four-game winning streak with a 109-105 victory Saturday night in Denver.
Harden added 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his 18th tripledouble.
With his team trailing 107105, Nuggets guard Will Barton missed a three-pointer and a layup in the final 30 seconds.
After Barton’s errant threepoint attempt, Harden missed at the other end and Nikola Jokic corralled the rebound. But then Barton missed a layup that would have tied it with about five seconds left, and Harden drew a foul. He sank both free throws to reach 40 points for the second time in two nights.
Grizzlies 104, Spurs 96: The Spurs dropped 2½ games behind the Warriors for the top seed in the Western Conference as host Memphis extended its winning streak to four behind 19 points from Mike Conley and 18 from Zach Randolph. Kawhi Leonard scored 22 for San Antonio, which lost its second straight.
Clippers 108, Cavaliers 78: While Cleveland’s LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving took the night off, Blake Griffin, who had sat out the Clippers’ previous game, scored 23 to lead Los Angeles to an easy victory. Richard Jefferson led the Cavs with 12 in their lowest-scoring game of the season.
Thunder 110, Kings 94: Russell Westbrook came up just short of a triple-double, with 28 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists, but host Oklahoma City won its fifth straight.
Trail Blazers 113, Hawks 97: Damian Lillard scored 27 points and C.J. McCollum added 22 for visiting Portland, which raced out to a 17-3 lead and never trailed. Atlanta held out Paul Millsap after he experienced tightness in his left knee during warm-ups. Ersan Ilyasova, who started for Millsap, had 23 points. Bulls 95, Jazz 86: Jimmy Butler scored 23 points and Bobby Portis added 22 to lead host Chicago in its second game without Dwyane Wade, out the remainder of the season with a broken elbow. Hornets 98, Wizards 93: Cody Zeller scored 19 points and host Charlotte snapped a three-game losing streak. John Wall had 19 points and eight assists for Washington.