James Harden led another historic day by scoring 56 points that allowed him to establish the best individual mark as a professional and help the Houston Rockets to win by 137-110 to the Utah Jazz of Ricky Rubio.
Next to Harden, Erick Gordon, contributed 20 points, when writing down 6 of 11 3pts, that allowed the Rockets to obtain the third consecutive victory. Trevor Ariza reached 14 points to complete the list of three Rockets players who had double-digit numbers. And the surprise factor was the Brazilian power forward Nene Hilario, who came out as reserve, and contributed 13 points in the 19 minutes he saw action.
As a team, the Rockets (8-3), who have the best record of the Western Conference, achieved 59 percent (23-39) of success in the triple, the best record so far this season, something that left Very happy to coach Mike D'Antoni. "We have made clear progress in the efficiency of the shots from outside the perimeter and that is a reason for joy, as well as the great night that Harden had, which is going to be more in his game as the competition goes on," said D 'Antoni. "He never measures the time he has to be in the field, but he was the one who worked the most and it did not make sense to extend his continuity in search of a better individual score." Harden was perfect in the 3-pointers (7-7) until he had the first missed in the fourth period when the holders of the Jazz were already sitting mostly on the bench. The Rockets, who are leaders of the Southwest Division, already had the game sentenced in the first quarter to get a partial 39-28, which increased to 18 (67-49) after going to rest.
Although the Jazz are one of the best defensive teams in the league, this time they could never be inspired by the Rockets, who beat them both with the outside shots and from inside the paint."There is no defense that can stop James when he is inspired as he is tonight, and as a team we are going more every day in terms of recovering the principles of our game that are based on moving the ball quickly and making shots in the way that we did it tonight, "said Ariza.
The Jazz (5-5), who were ahead in the score at the start of the game (0-5), immediately realized that the night was going to be special for Harden and very long for them, as it happened. Rookie base Donovan Mitchell, who came off reserve, emerged as the Jazz's leading scorer with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists, which left him in front of a list of seven players on his team, including five starters they had two-digit numbers. The French Center Rudy Gobert as a starter came to 13 points, but only five rebounds, without ever being able to with the tall men of the Rockets, while power forward Derrick and guard Rodney Hood scored 12 points apiece. Ricky Rubio, who acknowledged that they had not played the best basketball, also reached 10 points in the 20 minutes he was barely on the track of the Toyota Center. Rubio scored 2 of 7 field goals, including a three-pointer in five attempts, and 5 of 6 from the personnel line, handed out three assists, captured two rebounds and lost two balls. "We've made a lot of mental mistakes and that cost us the game," Rubio said. "Houston showed the power they have as a team"
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