James Harden led the Houston Rockets to a 123-104 victory over the Atlanta Hawks and with it bounce back from a 30-point defeat to Oklahoma City Thunder, their worst loss of the current season.
Harden had 28 points and five assists to help his team post 120-plus points and hand the Hawks their first defeat in five.
Before this game, the Rockets defense had conceded 120 plus points in consecutive games. Carlos Delfino scored 22 points and eight assists, while Jeremy Lin had 16 points and eight assists against the Hawks.
Atlanta offense started off well, making 27 points in the first quarter against the Rockets' 26, but Houston rebounded in the second quarter 38-19 to take an important 18-point lead in the first half. The Rockets had scored 38 points in the second period with the help of a 16-0 run.
"We really moved the ball well obviously shooting 61 percent in the first half," the Associated Press quoted Houston coach Kevin McHale as saying. "We made a ton of shots. We moved the ball really well and attacked."
For the Hawks, Lou Williams was the top scorer with 21 points in nine of 16 attempts from the floor, while Josh Smith had 17 points and seven rebounds.
"Houston's shooting pretty much sums it up," Smith said. "They got on a streak where they couldn't miss."
The Hawks outscored the Rockets in the third quarter 29-26, but Houston entered the last quarter with a 90-75 lead. Atlanta had a 12-2 run to cut the Rockets' lead to 102-97 with five minutes left. Houston extended their lead to 110-97 with Carlos Delfino's five quick points and Harden's three-pointer, to essentially seal victory.
"We had two kind of bad losses and we needed to come back and play our brand of basketball and do whatever it takes to get a victory," Harden said.
The biggest challenge before the Rockets was to avoid so many turnovers as they had 24 in each of their last two games. Coach McHale asked his players to control the ball with extra care and the Rockets did the same by finishing with just nine TOs against Atlanta.
"It was big for us," McHale said. "We just can't afford to turn the ball over. If we don't do that and we make just good and simply plays, usually we can get some pretty good shots with some movement, and our guys knocked them down tonight."
"Houston is a very hard team for us to match up with," Atlanta coach Larry Drew added. "We have a hard time defending this team."
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