The Houston Rockets’ winning streak came to an end on Wednesday in Louisiana, after they allowed the New Orleans Hornets to complete a 88-79 comeback win for.
Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin scored nine points on 4-of-12 shooting attempts, as well as making five steals, five assists, five rebounds and five turnovers.
The Rockets made 22 turnovers compared with the Hornets’ 16, and were also out-rebounded by 46 to 39.
Photo: AFP
James Harden was the only Rocket to score in double digits, contributing 25 points and four rebounds in spite of seven turnovers.
The Rockets led 36-34 at halftime and 69-59 after the thid quarter, but were unable to maintain the momentum into the final quarter, making just 10 points on four out of 19 shots and missing all three-pointers on nine attempts.
“A lot of what we did was self-inflicted. I’m not worried about the shots. It’s the turnovers and not keeping them off the glass that hurt us,” Rockets head coach Kevin McHale was quoted as saying by NBA.com.
“Any time a team gets that many offensive rebounds it’s going to be hard to run,’” McHale said.
The Hornets, on the other hand, turned the game around with the help of reserve guard Roger Mason, who shot 100 percent from the field to score 15 of his 17 points in the final quarter, leading New Orleans with a 21-2 run.
“I just keep working, staying in the game, and I feel good,” Mason said. “God gave me the strength to hit some good shots.”
Eric Gordon struggled with five points on 2-of-12 shooting for the Hornets.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers held on to beat the Dallas Mavericks 99-93, extending their franchise-record home winning streak to 13 games.
Matt Barnes added 19 points off the bench, and Blake Griffin had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Clippers (29-8), who took sole possession of the NBA’s best record from Oklahoma City with their third straight win overall.
Darren Collison scored 22 points for Dallas. O.J. Mayo added 17 and Dirk Nowitzki had 15. At 13-23, the Mavs fell 10 games below .500 for the first time since March 30, 2000, two months after Mark Cuban bought the team.
They have lost four in a row overall and three straight on the road, where they are 5-16.
In Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant scored 26 points and Russell Westbrook added 23 to help Oklahoma City Thunder overpower outmanned Minnesota.
After losing its last game on a buzzer-beater against a last-place Washington team saddled by injuries to its three top players, Oklahoma City left nothing to chance with the Timberwolves missing All-Star forward Kevin Love and four others.
The Thunder stretched the lead to 24 before pulling the starters with 5:44 to go.
Alexey Shved scored 18 points for Minnesota, who announced earlier in the day that Love would miss eight to 10 weeks after breaking his right hand for the second time.
Meanwhile, in San Antonio Texas, Tony Parker scored 24 points to help San Antonio hand slumping Los Angeles to a fifth straight loss.
Manu Ginobili added 19 points and Tiago Splitter and Stephen Jackson had 14 each for San Antonio, who have won 11 straight at home.
Kobe Bryant had 27 points, Metta World Peace added 23 and Earl Clark 22 for Los Angeles.
Bryant was 10 for 24 from the field, missing a 3-pointer on his final attempt that would have tied the game. Clark missed a follow-up 3 off a long rebound.
In other NBA games it was:
‧ Celtics 87, Suns 79
‧ Bucks 104, Bulls 96
‧ Grizzlies 94, Warriors 87
‧ Nuggets 108, Magic 105
‧ Jazz 112, Bobcats 102
‧ Raptors 90, 76ers 72
‧ Cavaliers 99, Hawks 83
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