James Harden drops 31; Houston Rockets down the Washington Wizards 99-93: NBA Recap
Returning from an ankle strain, James Harden hammered a game high 31 points on 10 of 20 shooting to lead the Houston Rockets to a 99-93 win over the league-worst Washington Wizards.
Harden scored 17 of his points in the first quarter, propelling the Rockets to a 27-17 lead. During that stretch, he connected on 6 of his 7 field goal attempts and made all four free throws;
"I was in the zone and I was feeling it," Harden, reflecting back on his first quarter performance, said after the game. "I was finding ways to hit shots and get to the line."
Chandler Parsons had a good game with 18 points - 8 of those coming in the last 3 minutes of the game -and 8 rebounds; Patrick Patterson added 13 and Toney Douglas had 12 on relief. Omer Asik managed only 9 points on the night, but hauled down a game-high sixteen rebounds.
Jeremy Lin got back to his playmaking role upon Harden’s return and a night after totaling a season high 38 points, he managed just 10 with 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
"(Harden) came out on fire, and we rode his scoring for a while," Lin said. "It's not just me and him - there's five of us out there. We're just trying to figure it all out and find a happy medium where we kind of maximize everybody."
The 3-16 Wizards were paced by Bradley Beal with 20 points and six assists while Houston native Emeka Okafor scored a season-high 19 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Staring at a 10 point hole after the first 12 minutes, the Wizards cranked up the offensive and a 9-0 midway through the second reduced their deficit to 5, 26-31. With 3:01 left till the interval, the Rockets had stretched their lead to 9, but three back-to-back triples tied the matter at 40. By the time teams went into the break, the score was 45-42 in favour of Rockets.
Nearly five minutes into the third period, the Wizards finally managed to take the lead at 52-51. That however gave way to a 15-2 Houston run, which put them up by 12. Washington responded right back with a 10 nothing spurt before a Toney Douglas deuce made it 68-64 for the Rockets at the end of third.
Rockets started the fourth strongly with a 10-4 to again take their advantage into double figures and after the Wizards had closed within 4 going into the last three minutes of the game, 8 vital points from Parsons iced the game.
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