The Rockets remain red hot.
Chris Paul scored 25 points, James Harden had 23 points and 11 assists, helping the Rockets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-112 on Tuesday night on the road for its 16th straight victory.
The Rockets matched Boston for the longest win streak in the league this season and are on the second-longest win streak in franchise history. The longest in franchise history was when the T-Mac led Rockets won 22 straight games, which was ironically ended by the original Big Three in Boston. This is Houston’s second winning streak of 14 or more games this season.
Trevor Ariza scored 15 points and Eric Gordon added 14 for the Rockets.
Russell Westbrook scored 32 points, but turned the ball over 9 times, and Carmelo Anthony added 23 for Oklahoma City, most of which he scored in the first half. OKC is in what can only be described as a log jam in the Western Conference standings, and now currently sit only a half-game ahead of Denver in the 8th spot.
Oklahoma City seems to bring their A-game against the top teams in the league. The Thunder have two wins over Golden State, a victory over Toronto and a win over Cleveland this season. The Rockets avoided joining the club once again by going 17 of 33(a low total for them) on 3-pointers and 29 of 34 on free throws. Houston had only shot 5 free throws going into the fourth quarter, but hack-a-Capela along with late game fouling helped the total add up.
The Rockets led 54-45 at halftime as Harden posted 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Anthony had 19 points for the Thunder and Westbrook had 14, but All-Star Paul George went 1 for 7 from the field before the break.
The Thunder closed the gap to three in the opening minutes of the third quarter, but the Rockets dominated the rest of the way and led 87-74 at the end of the period. Houston made 7 of 10 3-pointers in the quarter.
Houston extended its lead to 19 midway through the fourth quarter, and staved off late OKC runs keeping the Thunder at least 8 points behind for the rest of the game.
The Rockets are now 33-1 in games that James Harden, Chris Paul, and Clint Capela all play in. The only loss came in New Orleans when the Pelicans still had Boogie Cousins, and just before the Pelicans started their own hot streak.