Rockets even series 1-1 with 115-109 win over Clippers

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- After a disastrous second quarter, the Houston Rockets may have salvaged their season Wednesday night with a gut-check second-half performance which led them to a 115-109 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Rockets led 35-24 after the first quarter; but, in the second quarter, the Rockets succumbed to a Clippers 41 point tsunami. Blake Griffin scored 12 of his 26 first-half points in the second quarter; and, DeAndre Jordan, after playing just two and a half-minutes in the first quarter, scored 10 points in the second 12 minutes.

As a team, the Clippers made 16 of 21 field goal attempts (including 4 for 7 from three) in the second period.

The Rockets trailed the Clippers 65-56 at the half and 69-56 early in the third quarter.

James Harden picked up his fourth foul with 10:49 left in the third quarter; but, with Harden sitting on the bench, his teammates picked up the slack and outscored the Clippers 27-20 in the third period. Terrence Jones awakened from his first half slumber and scored six points in the third quarter.

"You  know, we just watched a little film again and T.J.  has to be more aggressive," Kevin McHale said. "T.J. is a hell of a talent. It's his first experience in the playoffs really because he didn't play last year and sometimes it takes a little time to warm up to everything."

James Harden returned to the game with 2:07 left in the third quarter. Harden made four free throws in the final two minutes of the third quarter; but, in the fourth period, Harden scored 16 points which helped the Rockets outscore the Clippers 32-24 in the quarter to close out the game with the 115-109 victory.

"I knew my team was battling extremely hard and basically it was up to me to go out there and push us forward," said James Harden. "They kept it a close game and they were battling. I sat out the entire 3rd quarter so by end of 3rd quarter, I was well rested.

"When we have a lead against these guys, the biggest thing is that we don’t get comfortable and just think that we can come down and get any shot," Dwight Howard said. "We've still got to run our offense and we've still got to do the little things that got us our lead and we've got to keep the intensity up. I think when they made their run, our intensity level dropped. We didn't move the ball as well and we just took some wild shots, some shots where we would have used the shot clock more and got into some different actions we would have gotten a better attempt at the basket."

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