James Harden drops 25 as Houston Rockets hammer Utah Jazz 125-80: NBA Recap
The Houston Rockets are red hot again. On Monday night, they thumped Utah Jazz by 45 points in what was a complete blowout. It was their fourth win in the last 5 games after suffering from a 7 game losing streak a little while
back.
For the Jazz, it was their worst ever home defeat in their club history. It was also the first time that the Jazz had lost a game by the margin of 40 points or more since 2000. They also had their 6 game home winning streak snapped.
James Harden led the Rocket with 25 points and 3 rebounds, Marcus Morris added 16 points while Omer Asik chipped in with 19 rebounds. Randy Foye led Jazz with 12 points while Derrick Favors added 11 points in the losing cause.
“It's one loss. You've got to understand why you lost the game. How did we play? We didn't have a lot of energy, we didn't execute, we didn't get stops and we didn't get back. Pick your poison. We didn't do anything on the defensive
end; we didn't do anything on the offensive end."
Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin commented after the loss.
The Rockets were well paced by Jeremy Lin who dished 7 assists and posted 12 points in the win.
"We moved the ball. We shared the ball. We played great defence and ran. Pretty much everything we wanted to do coming into the game, we were able to do so it was a great win for us." said Lin after the win.
Houston meant business right from the word go and went in front early in the quarter. They settled in their groove soon enough and pushed their advantage to 28-22 by the end of the first. The same trend continued in the second
quarter. In fact, the Rockets became more ruthless and had extended their lead to 57-39 at halftime.
Utah Jazz attempted to come back in the third period, they created more space and chances. Unfortunately the plan backfired as the Rockets converted their defence into offence and outscored the Jazz by 16 points in the third period
to virtually seal the deal. The fourth quarter was only a formality.
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