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 Houston's streak is tied for seventh-best in NBA history. The Rockets will try moving into a tie for fourth Saturday night at home against New Orleans, the next team they're trying to catch for a top-tier seed in the Western Conference. Houston already has gone from 24-20 to 41-20; the Hornets are 41-19.
The surprising part of the Rockets' sustained run is that the last five wins have come since Yao Ming broke his left foot, ending his season.
"When we lost Yao, people thought we wouldn't make (the playoffs)," Houston coach Rick Adelman said before the game. "But we're showing we still can compete."
McGrady and Alston helped the Rockets break the game open in the third quarter.
After consecutive long jumpers by Jason Kidd tied it at 55 early in the period, Houston answered with a 13-3 run. The Rockets had a big lead going into the fourth quarter, then McGrady made it 19 with an emphatic dunk off a pass from Alston thrown up from just inside halfcourt. A timeout followed, and fans started streaming out with 8:42 left.
Josh Howard scored 21 points and Jason Terry had 17 for Dallas, which lost its third straight and fourth in five games. The Mavs also had won 12 straight at home
-- but this time they were without Nowitzki. The reigning MVP was serving a one-game suspension for a hard foul on Utah's Andrei Kirilenko.
Dallas' offense was out of whack without Nowitzki, and his team-best 23.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. His absence was especially obvious during the third-quarter meltdown, when the Mavericks kept looking for someone to get the ball to but instead kept turning it over. Dallas had seven turnovers in the period, leading to 12 points for Houston.
The Rockets won by sharing the ball and by protecting it. As of midway through the fourth quarter, when victory was secure, Houston had 22 assists and four turnovers.
Carl Landry scored 17 points, including 12 in the second quarter, and Luis Scola added 12 points and nine rebounds for Houston.
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Jerry Stackhouse was the only other double-digit scorer for Dallas with 11. Kidd had seven points, six assists and six rebounds. Brandon Bass, who started in Nowitzki's place, had seven points.
Houston made its first five shots, then its first six in the second quarter. Dallas went through a 2-of-12 drought and other poor stretches, yet managed to go into halftime trailing only 52-50. The Mavericks were almost giddy on their way to the locker room because of the score and because Devean George closed the half by making a high-arching 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left.
Dallas fell to 4-5 since Kidd arrived. The only consolation is that all the losses were to teams ahead of the Mavs in the Western Conference. Up next for the Mavs: Five straight games against teams with losing records. The first four are at home, then they go to Miami to face the club with the league's worst record.
Notes: Houston beat Dallas for the first time in four meetings this season. ... The teams Houston tied with 17 straight wins: Dallas and Phoenix last season, San Antonio in 1995-96, Boston in 1959-60 and Washington in 1946-47. ... Dallas' last home loss was Dec. 27 against Cleveland. ... Adelman said his team was about to sign C Justin Williams to help fill the void created by Yao's absence. "I know one game he had, because he had it against us, he had something like 12 rebounds in a half," Adelman said.
[Associated Press; By JAIME ARON]
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