HOUSTON — James Harden had 50 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, scoring 11 points during a big fourth-quarter run to lead the Houston Rockets to a 126-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
Harden grabbed his 10th rebound with less than 90 seconds left to give him his second triple-double this season and the 37th of his career.
LeBron James finished with 29 points for the Lakers, who had won their previous two games.
Houston’s lead was three after Kyle Kuzma’s soaring dunk, but Harden was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws to make it 112-106.
Harden then made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to push the lead to 12 and cause Lakers Coach Luke Walton to call a timeout. James was in Harden’s face on the second one and Harden fell to the court as the ball rolled around the rim for a couple of seconds before dropping in.
James added a dunk before Clint Capela and Harden made consecutive baskets to compete the 13-2 run and make it 122-108 to put the game out of reach.
SPURS 125, CLIPPERS 87: LaMarcus Aldridge scored 27 points and the host Spurs won their fourth straight for their largest win of the season.
Rudy Gay added 21 points and DeMar DeRozan had 14 points and seven assists for San Antonio.
The Spurs held an opponent under 100 points for the third straight game while winning the first four games of a six-game homestand.
Tobias Harris had 17 points for Los Angeles and Danilo Gallinari and Avery Bradley added 15 apiece. The Clippers have lost two straight and 4 of 5.
NOTES
WARRIORS: Stephen Curry told ESPN this week he was joking when he questioned on a podcast whether astronauts landed on the moon, comments that sent social media into a tizzy.
He also said he will accept NASA’s invitation to tour the lunar lab at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“Obviously I was joking when I was talking on the podcast,” Curry told ESPN. “(Then) I was silently protesting how stupid it was that people actually took that quote and made it law as, ‘Oh my God, he’s a fake-moon-landing truther,’ whatever you want to call it, yada, yada, yada. So I was silently protesting that part about it, how the story took a life of its own.
“But in terms of the reaction that I’ve gotten, I am definitely going to take (NASA) up on their offer.”
KNICKS: The Knicks signed guard Allonzo Trier to a guaranteed deal after the undrafted rookie’s strong start to the season.
The Knicks say that Trier became the first two-way player to sign a guaranteed NBA contract within the first two months of the season. The team acted quickly to make sure Trier wouldn’t have to spend time in the NBA G League after he was one of the top contributors to the Knicks.
Trier is averaging 11.3 points in 27 games and is shooting 39.1 percent from 3-point range, which ranks third among first-year players.
He was signed to a two-way contract on July 3 after the former Arizona guard wasn’t taken in the draft despite averaging 18.1 points as a junior.
To make room on the roster for Trier’s contract, the Knicks waived guard Ron Baker.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.