Aggressive Rockets win Game 5

Posted: May 13, 2015 -- 12:50 am.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets were the aggressors Tuesday night; and, that aggression plus key contributions from Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, Terrence Jones, Corey Brewer, Jason Terry, and Josh Smith resulted in a thorough 124-103 Game 5 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

"We attacked," Kevin McHale said after the game. "Finally, we got to the basket. We got points in the paint (and) tried to attack and played a little bit more like we tried to play the entire year. That was really the first kind of game offensively that we played downhill. We got our rhythm going."

Ariza set the tone of the game for the Rockets with a pump fake and a drive to the hoop and a slam dunk finish to open the scoring. Dwight Howard took advantage of DeAndre Jordan's two fouls in the first quarter: Howard played the entire first period and scored nine points and pulled down eight rebounds. Ariza scored seven points in the opening period.

The Rockets led the Clippers 27-22 after 12 minutes.

Harden was in attack-mode in the second quarter. With 9:14 left in the quarter, Harden attacked the basket and drew the third foul on Jordan. Jordan headed to the bench; and, the Rockets took a few minutes to capitalize on Jordan's absence which allowed the Clippers to pull within two points (48-46) with 3:36 remaining in the opening half.

Harden made two free throws to begin a 15-2 Rockets' run which gave the Rockets a 63-48 halftime lead.

Harden scored 15 points in the first half while Howard scored 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.

The Rockets' aggressiveness resulted in 21 free throw attempts (made 14) in the first half.

The Clippers were more aggressive in the third quarter and shot 13 free throws (made seven) while the Rockets only shot 4 free throws (made just one) in the quarter. Blake Griffin's 11 third-quarter points helped the Clippers outscore the Rockets 28-27 in the quarter.

The Rockets led 90-76 after three quarters.

Josh Smith drained back-to-back jumpers, including a three-point shot from the top of the key for a 99-80 Rockets' lead.

"Hack-A-Whoever" occurred in the fourth quarter; but, the Rockets' lead grew to as much as 23 points before winning the game by 21 points.

"They deserved to win this game," said Clippers' head coach Doc Rivers after the game.

Harden tallied his first career playoff triple double with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Trevor Ariza scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Howard finished the game with 20 points and 15 rebounds. Corey Brewer scored 15 points off the bench; Terrence Jones added 12 points and rookie big man, Clint Capela scored eight points off the bench to enable the Rockets' bench to outscore the Clippers' bench 36-24.

Game 6 is Thursday, May 14, in Los Angles. Tip is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. (CDT) on ESPN.

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