James Harden returned from injury to score 28 points and Jeremy Lin (林書豪) had his first career triple-double to lead the Houston Rockets to their third straight win, 106-92 over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.
Dwight Howard added 26 points and Lin came off the bench to tally 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Harden sat out the previous two games with a bruised left thumb. It showed no signs of bothering him on Saturday, when he also had four assists and three rebounds.
Houston led by as many as 19 points in the first half, before Cleveland opened the second half with an 11-0 run to take a 63-61 lead, their first since the opening minutes of the game.
Cleveland’s lead was short-lived, though, as the Rockets roared back by scoring the next 11 points to lead 72-63 and hold on for the win.
Luol Deng had 24 points, while Kyrie Irving added 21 with seven assists as Cleveland dropped their fourth in a row.
The Rockets used three-pointers by Lin and Terrence Jones to fuel a 7-2 run early in the fourth quarter that made it 93-78.
A layup by Howard followed by an alley-oop dunk by Harden with less than a minute to go pushed the lead to 106-90. Lin’s 10th assist came on Howard’s layup.
Houston were up by six a few minutes after they regained the lead in the third quarter when another run — this one 8-0 — stretched the advantage to 82-68.
Harden had a one-handed dunk before a two-handed slam by Howard on the next possession ended the run, brought the crowd to its feet and had Cleveland coach Mike Brown yelling for a timeout.
The Rockets led 84-73 entering the fourth quarter.
Five straight points by the Cavaliers got them within seven points early in the second quarter. The Rockets answered with a 14-2 spurt to push their lead to 49-30 midway through.
Lin made six consecutive points in that stretch and Omri Casspi added six points in the run.
The Cavaliers missed shots, committed turnovers and fouled on possession after possession as Houston extended their advantage.
Cleveland finally got back on track when Deng scored five quick points, including a three-pointer, as the start of a 17-6 run that got the Cavaliers within 55-47.
Deng had another three near the end of that run and Dion Waiters also hit a three-pointer.
Another three by Waiters with just a few seconds left in the quarter cut the lead to six, but Harden knocked down a three just before the buzzer to leave Houston leading 61-52 at halftime.
Cleveland had a four-point lead early, before Houston scored 11 straight points capped by a dunk from Howard to take a 15-8 lead.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
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