James Harden scored 35 points, making all 15 of his free throws, and the Houston Rockets held off the Toronto Raptors 121-119.
The Rockets never trailed and led by as many as 22. The Rockets led 48-26 with 8:12 left in the second quarter, and the Raptors cut it to 2 in the final minute. Pascal Siakam’s corner 3-pointer made it 121-119 with 27.3 seconds left. The Raptors had the ball down 2 after a timeout, but Kawhi Leonard missed a pull-up 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have put them ahead.
In the fourth quarter, P.J. Tucker had 3 of his 4 steals, 2 of them during a 14-0 Rockets run, and the Rockets scored 6 points off them.
Eric Gordon had 24 points (12 in the paint) and 3 steals, and Kenneth Faried added 21 points (16 in the paint) and 14 rebounds on 8 for 11 shooting. The Rockets had 3 20-point scorers.
For the Raptors, Leonard scored 32 points, and Siakam added 22 points and 12 rebounds. Danny Green scored 22 points with 6 3-pointers. The Raptors had 3 20-point scorers.
The Raptors turned it over 21 times, about 6 more than usual for this many possessions. They scored the last 9 points of the game. The Rockets outscored the Raptors 23-10 in 6 minutes with Nene, Green, Gordon, Rivers and Ennis on the floor together. Serge Ibaka fouled out.