"His energy is infectious," said JB Bickerstaff of Jason Terry's defense. "His weakside defense when he's running around, scrambling, and chasing the ball and rotating on the weakside; the other guys see him doing that and that picks them up; gives them the boost. When they see him doing it, that's the spark. In these moments, I think JET (Jason Terry) has to have a role for us."

"He was the JET tonight," Dwight Howard added. "Sometimes, he was the propeller. Tonight, he was the JET. He played really good on both ends of the floor. On defense, he was everywhere. He had a really, really, really good game."

The Rockets (16-15) led the Spurs (25-6) 61-60 after three quarters. Terry scored 9 points and picked up 3 steals in the fourth quarter to key the victory.

"It just goes back to my role throughout my career," Terry said of his 4th quarter performance. "That's what I pride myself on. Always being ready and in big moments in games like tonight when my team needed me the post, I want to show up and then be effective."

"We need him on the floor," Bickerstaff acknowledged. "There's times, where he needs the rest, obviously. But, big moments and big games, he's one of the guys that I trust the most."

James Harden scored a team-high 20 points for the Rockets. Harden scored just 2 points in the first half (1 for 6 field goals and 0 free throw attempts); but, Harden was more aggressive (15 field goal attempts, made 6) in the second half which was key in his 18 second-half points.

The Rockets led by just five points (78-73) before Harden nailed back-to-back three-point shots. The second three-point basket came with 3:36 remaining in the game and Tim Duncan defending him.

"I thought he made two big threes," said Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. "One of them, we weren't up the way we should have been on a switch; and, he got a free one. The next one, he was deep and Timmy (Tim Duncan) was all over him; and, he made a great shot. Those two threes really changed it."

The Rockets didn't allow the Spurs to get closer than four points the rest of the game.

Terrence Jones added 14 points while Dwight Howard chipped in 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.