Utah downs Rockets 100-89; Harden leaves game in 4th
HOUSTON — Donovan Mitchell scored 38 points to lead the Utah Jazz to a 100-89 victory over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night in a game James Harden left with an apparent injury.
The Rockets got within five points midway through the fourth quarter but Harden headed to the locker room soon after and didn’t return. It was unclear how he was injured or what the problem was and the team didn’t immediately provide on update on his condition.
With Harden out the game, the Jazz regained control, scoring the next 10 points to make it 94-79 and cruise to the victory.
Harden scored 29 points and Carmelo Anthony had a season-high 22 for the Rockets, who were missing two starters. Chris Paul finished up a two-game suspension for his role in a fight with the Lakers last week and James Ennis sat out with a strained right hamstring.
Eric Gordon made his second straight start in place of Paul and Michael Carter-Williams made his first start of the season with Ennis on the bench.
Utah got this season’s series with Houston off on a good note after the Rockets beat the Jazz 4-1 in the Western Conference semifinals after winning all four regular-season meetings.
The Jazz had a 15-point lead early in the fourth after scoring the first six points of the quarter. Houston got going after that, scoring the next seven points, with the first four from Clint Capela and a 3 from Anthony to make it 81-75 with about nine minutes left.