Lee stars as Houston Rockets defeat the Denver Nuggets 121-102
Courtney Lee came off the bench to score 22 points and six rebounds, as the Houston Rockets came back from 14 points behind in the second quarter to beat the Denver Nuggets 121-102, at the Toyota Centre on Monday night. Shane Battier also scored 17 points
and handed out five assists in the win.
The Nuggets were aiming to exact revenge on the Houston Rockets for a heart-breaking 108-103 loss they suffered last week. They certainly started with that intensity as they sprinted to a 12-3 lead within the first four and a half minutes of play. The Houston
offence missed eight of their first nine shots but soon started to gather pace. Their defence however, was rendered helpless, as the Nuggets kept on pouring shots with a conversion rate of nearly 50 percent.
The up tempo game of the Bronchos was accompanied by some fluid passing and intimidating tactics as they sprinted to 33-19 lead by half time.
The trend ensued in the second quarter as the Denver offence continued to pile on the pressure. The Nuggets started with four straight points from Carmelo Anthony and reeled off a seven-point unanswered spurt in the fifth minute of the frame. This time though
they were getting an equal response from the Rockets.
With seven minutes left until the break, Ty Lawson canned a layup that put the Nuggets in front by 45-31. The visitors were apparently cruising at that point, but they were in for a surprise.
What started as a simple three-point play from Courtney Lee midway through the second quarter soon blossomed into an avalanche, bridging the last six minutes of the second quarter and the whole of the third quarter that simply took the Nuggets apart.
The Rockets torched the Nuggets with a 27-9 run to end the first half and then went all out in the third quarter, outscoring them by 30-14 to pull away for good. The Nuggets went 4-for-17 from the field in the third quarter and spurned all five of their
three-point attempts.
The Rockets were never troubled much after that as the Nuggets made a few quick baskets in the dying minutes to give the final score some respectability at 121-102. Aaron Brooks came off the bench to score 18 points while Luis Scola added 10 points and eight
rebounds for the Rockets, who shook off a bad offensive start to go 14-for-32 from the three-point range to beat the Nuggets for the second time in a week.
For the Nuggets Aaron Afflalo top scored with 17 points while Carmelo Anthony, who scored a whooping 50 points the last time the teams met, managed only 16 on a 4-of-14 shooting.
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