Rockets hand Spurs first home loss
Houston Rockets small forward Omri Casspi, of Israel, celebrates on the Houston bench during the final seconds of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013, in San Antonio. Houston won 112-106. AP
SAN ANTONIO – James Harden scored 31 points, Chandler Parsons had 25, and the Houston Rockets overcame a furious second-half rally to beat San Antonio 112-106 on Saturday night, handing the Spurs their first home defeat.
Dwight Howard had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Terrence Jones added 10 points and 16 boards, and Patrick Beverly had 11 points for Houston (13-5).
Tony Parker had 27 points, Tim Duncan added 20 and Marco Belinelli scored 18 for San Antonio (14-3), which has lost two of three.
San Antonio outscored Houston 39-26 to open the second half, with Belinelli scoring 13 points after halftime to set up a furious finish.
Harden’s off-balance 3-pointer tied the game at 106 with 45 seconds left. Parker missed a driving layup over Howard, and Beverly tipped in Harden’s miss to put Houston up 108-106 with 31 seconds remaining. Manu Ginobili missed a 3-pointer, enabling Houston to outlet to Parsons for a dunk and a 110-106 lead with 16 seconds left.
Houston responded to a late first-half spurt by San Antonio by opening the second half on a 13-2 run that Parsons and Harden opened and closed with 3-pointers.
The run appeared to fire up Duncan, who scored seven of the Spurs’ 13 points in one stretch, including an alley-oop-dunk in front of Howard. The Spurs were energized by their stoic leader showing some fire, closing within 81-80 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter.
Belinelli hit consecutive 3s to give San Antonio an 85-83 lead early in the final quarter, its first since going up 12-11 with 6:34 left in the first. He added another 3 to give the Spurs an 88-83 advantage.
Harden was shaken up after running into Danny Green’s chest while attempting to create space. Harden fell to the ground, allowing Green to score an uncontested dunk with no foul assessed. Harden remained on the floor for a few seconds before getting up, grimacing and then slamming his palm into the scorer’s table in anger on the non-call.
NOTES: Houston G Jeremy Lin and F Greg Smith both missed the game with sprained right knees. It was the second straight game Lin has missed. . A scene from the 2004 movie ”The Alamo” was shown during the first quarter, making the Spurs the defenders of the Alamo and Texas, and the Rockets as the invading army. . ”Let’s go Rockets!” chants broke out during the game. . San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich was assessed a technical foul after screaming at official Tom Washington for allowing Houston coach Kevin McHale to stand within a foot of Duncan as he attempted to inbound the ball on the final play of the first half. After stepping in front of Duncan several times to prevent Washington from handing him the ball while he argued a non-call, McHale stood an arm’s length beside the Spurs forward as he threw the ball three-quarters of the court to Ginobili.
