Ariza’s 31, 5 3s get Rockets by Thunder
HOUSTON (AP)—Forget coach Rick Adelman bragging about his team’s resilience.The Houston Rockets are ready for a rest.
Trevor Ariza(notes) scored 31 points and hit five 3-pointers, and the Rocketsclosed an exhausting run of four games in five days with a 95-90 victory overthe Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night.
The Rockets nearly blew a 17-point lead.
“I think people just keep talking about being surprised that this team iscompeting, and that’s what you have to do in this league if you want to win, andthat’s one good thing about our team is that we compete,” Adelman said.
Oklahoma City Thunder's Je… AP – Dec 19, 11:58 pm EST ![]()
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“They might have gotten a little tired but we had to get through this gameand we got the win. We made some big hustle plays in the last two and a half,three minutes, and that was the difference.”
The Rockets flew home from Dallas, where they beat the Mavericks 116-108 inovertime on Friday night, to face the Thunder. They built a 58-41 lead early inthe third quarter and then almost ran out of gas.
“It was tough down the stretch,” Ariza said. “It’s what we try to do.Tonight we were successful. The night before we were successful, so we just haveto build from there.”
It was Houston’s 13th straight victory and 10th in a row at home against theThunder.
The Thunder cut Houston’s lead to 74-65 at the end of the third quarter andnipped at the Rockets’ heels the rest of the game.
They pulled within one point, 82-81, on a pair of free throws by RussellWestbrook(notes) with 5:20 to play, but the Rockets never lost the lead.
Kevin Durant(notes), the Thunder’s leading scorer, hit only three of his first 12shots and finished with 13 points. Jeff Green(notes) led Oklahoma City with 21 pointson 6-of-18 shooting.
“I liked the way we battled back,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “I amvery proud of the effort and the way this team plays. We dug ourselves a holeand couldn’t get out. We got some stops in the fourth quarter but the offensiverebounds killed us.”
Luis Scola(notes) added 16 points for the Rockets, and Shane Battier(notes) and ChuckHayes(notes) each added 13.
Russell Westbrook and James Harden(notes) scored 15 each for the Thunder.
“It was a physical game and very competitive,” Green said. “Houstonplayed great and they are a great team that works very hard. We got a spark offthe bench but it wasn’t enough. We have to do it as a team and continue to playtogether.”
The Rockets used a 19-6 run to close the second quarter for a 50-40 lead atthe break.
Houston hasn’t lost to the Thunder since April 4, 2006, when the team wasbased in Seattle.
NOTES: Carl Landry(notes) sat out the game after breaking several teeth in acollision with Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki(notes) on Friday night. … Houston’s 116-108overtime victory at Dallas was the sixth time this season the Rockets have comeback from deficits of 10 or more points to win. … Durant had a season low 12points at Dallas on Wednesday, snapping a nine-game string of scoring 25 or morepoints. He rebounded Friday against Detroit with 27 points. … Oklahoma City is11-0 when scoring more than 100 points and 2-11 when allowing 100. … ChaseBudinger(notes) left the game early in the second quarter with a right ankle sprain.
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