James Harden logs second straight 51-point outing, but Houston still falls
Houston— Austin Rivers scored a career-high 36 points and made six 3-pointers, and the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers withstood James Harden’s second straight 51-point performance to beat the Houston Rockets, 128-118, on Friday night.
The Rockets had a 14-game winning streak snapped by the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, and lost consecutive games for just the second time this season and the first since Oct. 28 and 30.
Rivers made a 3-pointer with just under three minutes to play that pushed the lead to 117-111. Ryan Anderson made two free throws for Houston before C.J. Williams added a layup for the Clippers.
Former Rocket Lou Williams, who had 32 points, then made his fourth 3-pointer of the quarter after that to make it 122-113 before a turnover by Harden spurred coach Mike D’Antoni to call a timeout.
Rivers made another 3-pointer after the timeout and Harden made a layup before fouling out a few seconds later. He received a technical for arguing about the call and was ejected from the game.
The game lacked much of the intrigue it could have had with Chris Paul sitting out in the first meeting with his former team because of a groin injury. The nine-time All-Star spent the last six seasons with the Clippers before a blockbuster trade brought him to the Rockets this summer.
Patrick Beverley, who was the highest-profile Rocket involved in the trade, also missed the game while recovering from knee surgery.
WARRIORS 113,
LAKERS 106
Kevin Durant had 33 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four blocks, and Golden State held off Los Angeles for its 11th straight victory.
Rookie Jordan Bell recorded his first career double-double with season bests of 20 points and 10 rebounds, making a key layup with 2:45 to go and dunking a minute later. Klay Thompson scored 16 points and Draymond Green added 13 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as he came back from a shoulder injury for the defending champs.
Kyle Kuzma scored 27 points and fellow rookie Lonzo Ball had 24 points with five 3-pointers in his first visit to Oracle Arena. Julius Randle added 21 points off the bench for Los Angeles, which snapped the Rockets’ 14-game winning streak Wednesday night in Houston.
OTHER RESULTS:
THUNDER 120, HAWKS 117
BUCKS 109, HORNETS 104
PISTONS 104, KNICKS 101
NUGGETS 102, BLAZERS 85
HEAT 113, MAVERICKS 101
NETS 119, WIZARDS 84
PELICANS 111, MAGIC 97