|
 Harden scored 36 points in his return from a one-game absence, and
the Rockets overcame Anthony's 45 points for a 109-106 victory
Thursday night.
Anthony had the highest-scoring game in the NBA this season and
grabbed 10 rebounds, but it wasn't enough for the Knicks in their
fourth straight home loss.
Chandler Parsons added 22 points and Lin had 21 for the Rockets, who
beat the Knicks for the eighth straight time even on a mostly silent
night from Dwight Howard, largely outplayed by Andrea Bargnani.
"Jeremy stepped up, James played big and that's what we need,"
Howard said.
Howard had just seven points with his 15 rebounds, though he did
make a pair of free throws with 1:15 left that gave Houston a
five-point lead.
Harden, who missed the Rockets' 123-117 overtime loss in
Philadelphia on Wednesday with a bruised left foot, scored seven
straight Houston points for nine-point lead with 3:51 left. He
finished 16 of 18 at the line.
But there was plenty of excitement left, including Anthony just
missing a potential four-point play when the Rockets fouled him
intentionally behind the arc leading by three with 5 seconds left.
Anthony threw the ball up and it went in, but officials ruled it
came after Harden fouled him. The Rockets hadn't fouled in similar
situations lately, and both Toronto and Philadelphia made late 3s to
force them into overtime.
"It seems like that has happened a lot to us lately. Last-second
shots. The first two times you know we didn't foul and they made big
3s. Tonight a foul and they still made a big 3," Harden said.
Not quite.
Knicks coach Mike Woodson wanted referees to review the call, though
it isn't reviewable, and Anthony wouldn't say if he believed it
should have counted.
"My thoughts don't mean anything at this point in time," said
Anthony, who did express his frustration with some of the calls
Harden received. "It really doesn't matter right now for me to say
whether I thought it was a good call or not. So therefore we move on
from that."
[to top of second column] |
Anthony made both free throws — he was trying to
miss the second intentionally — but Harden answered with a pair
to make it 109-106 with 2.9 seconds to play, and J.R. Smith was
well off with a long-distance heave at the buzzer.
Bargnani scored 24 points for the Knicks and played surprisingly
strong defense on Howard, who shot 1 of 5. Smith scored 15
points in his second start but shot just 4 of 16 for the Knicks,
who also cost themselves when Anthony's intentional foul on
Howard away from the ball came with under 2 minutes left,
allowing the Rockets to retain possession.
Lin, back to coming off the bench after starting Wednesday in
Harden's place, has won both games back at MSG, where he burst
onto the worldwide scene two years ago during his memorable run
of Linsanity.
Lin came in on another nice roll, scoring 65 points in his
previous two games, the best two-game stretch of his career. But
the Rockets wasted his 34-point, 12-assist game Wednesday that
featured a Rockets record-tying nine 3-pointers.
"We played more as a team today," Lin said. "We really moved the
ball, shared the ball. We played really unselfish today and we
also did what we needed to do defensively."
Houston led 28-23 after one and was starting to run away with it
when it opened a 49-35 lead during Parsons' run of 11 straight
Rockets points. But he didn't score the rest of the half after
his driving dunk with 3:10 left, and Anthony and Bargnani
combined for three 3-pointers during a 13-2 run to close the
half and cut it to 53-52.
"We've let four games in a row at home get away, that's
something we hadn't done since I've been here," Woodson said.
"That's kind of frustrating from a coach's standpoint, but we're
still learning each other and trying to figure it out, and we
will eventually."
NOTES: Center Omer Asik didn't play for the Rockets after the
Houston Chronicle reported he had requested a trade. He had been
starting along with Howard until coach Kevin McHale scrapped the
alignment. McHale said Asik told him he didn't feel well and
that he hadn't heard about any rumors. ... Rockets backup
forward Greg Smith left with what appeared to be a right leg
injury following an awkward landing after playing just 40
seconds in the first quarter.
[Associated
Press; BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer]
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