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.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work