The Houston Rockets defeated the Dallas Mavericks 93-92 at Toyota Center on Sunday.
The Rockets (2-1) maintained a lead throughout most of the Western Conference clash with the Mavericks (0-3), which included a 10 point lead at the half. The drama ensued down the stretch, started by Wesley Matthews, who was able to cap of a 7-0 run with back-to-back baskets, which cut the Rockets lead to two points with 3:02 remaining in the fourth quarter. Matthews heads up defense forced a turnover on Harden and transitioned the impressive scoring effort to give Dallas a chance to grab their first win of the season. Matthews continued to put the team on his shoulders after draining a 27-foot three pointer to tie the game at 92 points a piece with :04 left in the game, but also committed a shooting foul on James Harden’s drive to the hoop with just a tenth of a second left to play. Harden missed the first free throw, but sank the second and that was all that needed to ice the game for Houston.
Harden went on to put up star numbers again, scoring 28 points, to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists. Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson joined Harden in double figures with 14 points each, while Clint Capela was strong on the glass totalling 10 rebounds.
Wes Matthews struggled from behind-the-arc, but not when it mattered most for Dallas. Matthews finished with 25 points, five boards and three assists on 9-of-25 shooting (3-of-15 from three). Harrison Barnes started 3-of-5 from the field, but ended up missing his next six attempts on his way to a lowly 10 points in 38 minutes of action.
The Rockets will head to Cleveland to visit the reigning champion Cavaliers on Tuesday, while the Mavericks will visit the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
