Rockets dismantle Warriors, 105-83

Posted: December 6, 2013 -- 11:13 pm CST.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets dominated the Golden State Warriors with a thorough 105-83 dismantling Friday night.

"Our starters were really good tonight," said head coach Kevin McHale after the game.

Really good indeed. On offense and defense.

"Our defense was great from the beginning," Dwight Howard said. "We had a lot of deflections. We ran the floor well and put pressure on their guards to make plays to other guys instead of them coming off scoring and we got a good win."

James Harden scored 34 points; pulled down seven boards; and dished four dimes. Dwight Howard destroyed the Warriors' big men with 22 points and 18 rebounds. Terrence Jones added 16 points and 10 boards. Chandler Parsons added 8 points while Patrick Beverley scored six.

"If we don't get after them on the defensive end, it's going to be tough for us," Harden said. "We were getting huge stops and getting out in transition. We did a good job early in the game of putting pressure on their guards and we got things going our way."

The Rockets' starters played great defense.

"I thought that we came out and really got after them (the Warriors)," McHale commented. "I thought James did a really did nice job. They dropped the ball to Harrison Barnes quite a bit early. James did a really nice job guarding him."

Harden limited Harrison Barnes to 5 for 16.

Beverly hounded Stephen Curry into 5 of 14 field goal shooting. Chandler Parsons frustrated Klay Thompson 2 for 10.

"I thought that Patrick did a really nice job on Steph; and, Chandler was locked in on Klay Thompson," McHale added. "Those guys are tough guys to guard, and, they did a nice job of not letting them get started. We were able to just kind of play from there."

Terrence Jones, as is customary lately, jumped out to a great start. Jones scored 7 of the Rockets' first 10 points to jump start the Rockets to a 31-12 lead after one quarter. Jones finished the quarter with 11 points; and Dwight Howard nearly had a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds in 11 plus minutes.

Steph Curry scored 14 points in the second quarter; but, the rest of the Warriors scored 11. The Rockets outscored the Warriors 30-25 in the period and led 61-37 at halftime.

The Rockets (14-7) pushed the lead to 28 early in the third stanza; and, despite the Warriors (11-9) winning the quarter by three (29-26), the Rockets led 87-66 heading to the fourth quarter.

Both teams struggled to make shots in the fourth quarter. The Rockets made just 8 of 21 field goals; but, the Warriors failed to capitalize by making just 6 of 18 shot attempts.

The Rockets held the Warriors to 27 of 76 (35.5%) from the field, 2 of 16 (12.5%) from three, and just 10 assists. The Warriors set team season lows in field goal percentage (was 40.5%), 3 pointers made (was five), 3-point field goal percentage (was 27.8%) and assists (was 16).

"We got out worked," said Warriors' head coach Mark Jackson after the game. "They played with more force and that set the tone the rest of the way."

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