James Harden stars as Houston Rockets demolish Toronto Raptors 117-101: NBA Recap
James Harden and Patrick Patterson lifted the Houston Rockets to a 117-101 win over the Toronto Raptors here at Toyota Center on Tuesday night. With this win, the Rockets have improved to 6-1 against the Eastern Conference opponents
this season.
James Harden scored 24 points, dished out 12 assists and grabbed 6 rebounds to post a double-double, Patterson gathered 22 points, Omer Asik had 13 points and 18 rebounds while Jeremy Lin added 16 points and 10 assists for the
Rockets, who completed a 3-0 home stand.
“I just think a lot of it is natural evolution. We're finding each other better. We're making the extra pass better. ... This past week, we've really worked on getting ourselves better. You can tell our offense is crisper." Houston
acting coach Kelvin Sampson was visibly pleased after the win.
Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 21 points; Terrence Ross had 19 while DeMar DeRozan, Ed Davis, Jose Calderon and Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 12 points each on the night.
Houston were wearing green bands on their shoulders in show of support for their coach Kevin McHale's daughter, Sasha McHale, who passed away on Saturday.
Harden made a jumper early in the first period to put the Rockets up 12-9. Omer Asik extended their advantage to 17-11 with a brilliant reverse layup shot and Houston kept up the good work, leading 29-23 by the end of the period.
A 7-3 stint at the start of the second period reduced the Raptors’ deficit down to 30-32. Rockets however, started pulling ahead after that and were up 47-38 after a Patrick Patterson jumper. Harden and company kept up the pressure
and were leading by 61-51 when they headed to the locker room.
Harden kicked off the third period for the Rockets with a shot from behind the arc, putting them up by 64-51. Minutes later, he sank two more from downtown to extend their lead to 78-55. An 8-0 quick burst put the Rockets up to
91-64, their highest lead of the game, before the Raptors scored some points late in the period to cut the deficit down to 79-96.
Daequan Cook made a buzzer beating three-pointer for the Rockets that had them leading by 20 points at the end of the period.
The Raptors managed to outscore Houston by 4 in the fourth period but the Rockets cruised to victory on the back of the advantage they had piled over the previous quarters. Jonas Valanciunas free throw made it a 12 point game for
the Raps on 97-109, and it was the closest they got to the Rockets in the period.
The Rockets shot an impressive 53 percent from the floor and 50 percent from the three point range, where as Raptors shot 48.8 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from downtown.
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