Harden leads second-half surge as Rockets run past Nuggets

DENVER – James Harden had spent much of the night looking over the Nuggets’ defense, sitting back like a distance runner plotting a finishing kick, waiting for the time to take off.

The Nuggets had made their move, reducing a 10-point lead to four. The time had come.

Harden had begun to roll in the third quarter, largely with a sensational stretch of pbading. He had made just one field goal in the first half, but increasingly seemed in command.

When the game was tight, he took it over, driving the Rockets through a 13-2 fourth-quarter run in which he scored or set up every point, and past the Nuggets, bad-xx.

After scoring three first half points, Harden had 22 in the second half, making 6 of 11 shots, with seven badists.

Clint Capela added 24, Chris Paul 21. With James Ennis III and P.J. Tucker combining for 28 points, every Rockets starter scored in double figures, making 35 of 59 shots (59.3 percent). The Rockets’ 54.9 percent shooting was their best of the season.

The defense in the second half did the rest, holding the Nuggets to 45.9 percent shooting and just 44 points.

The Nuggets had spent much of the game sending two defenders to the defend Harden on high screens, rather than the switching style that had spread around the league. But he had spent years going against that and happily moved the ball to open shooters.

Harden did not get his own scoring going into the second half, but the Rockets’ ball movement was sharp early and got better. When the Nuggets had enough of that and began asking big men to switch on him, he lit them up.

Harden had eight points in the third quarter when his pbading was especially sensational. The Rockets took their lead to 10 and when the Nuggets rallied back, cutting the lead to four, Harden drew a foul, finished a drive and drew a charge, seeming to stop the Nuggets’ momentum cold. When he put in another drive, the Rockets had restored their 10-point lead. After a Gary Harris layup, Harden swished a 3 and the Rockets had their largest lead, 102-91, with 4:49 left.

He added a blocked shots and a drawn charge to the run, and kept on rolling until a game that had been tight, with 28 ties or lead changes and a four-point edge, turned into a blowout.

Harden did not score until just 5:22 was left in the first half, finishing a break started by a Clint Capela blocked shot. That was just his second shot and did not seem an offense built to last. With the Nuggets sending two defenders to the ball on high screens, Harden moved the ball around and the Rockets got good shots, but after getting Paul back in gear, would need Harden, too.

While Paul finished the half 5 of 7 for 14 points, Harden missed his final three shots of the half while the similarly struggling Nuggets star, Jamal Murray made a pair in the final minute to put Denver in front, 55-54.

The Rockets had their troubles stopping the Nuggets throughout the half, largely because of the Nuggets outstanding shooting from deep well into the first half. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic triggered offense, often when the Rockets sent double-team help after switches. But many of the Rockets’ problems were self-inflicted, especially in the first quarter when the Nuggets scored 10 points off sever Rockets turnovers.

That helped get Denver going and by halftime, the Nuggets were making 53.8 percent of their shots, 53.3 percent of their 3-pointers.

The Rockets went into the game allowing the second-fewest 3-pointers per game while the Nuggets ranked 26th in 3s made, averaging 9.3 per game. When the Nuggets nearly reached that in the first half, it was clear what the Rockets needed to repair, whether Harden began scoring or not.

This, however, did fit well in what they do. The Rockets were fourth in the NBA in field goal percentage defense in the third quarter, holding teams to 42.9 percent shooting. After making 53.8 percent of their shots in the first half, the Nuggets made 42.1 percent in the third. And Harden has been known to find ways to score.

Both ends of the floor worked well enough for the Rockets to take the lead to 10. The Nuggets, however, had enough firepower to answer, before Harden took over one last time.