Houston Rockets: James Harden dominates in win over New Orleans Pelicans

James Harden’s big fourth quarter leads the Houston Rockets to a 122-116 win over the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center.

After starting just 3-3, the Houston Rockets are on a four-game winning streak and are tied for third place in the Western Conference. Admittedly, Houston has played four bad teams in each of those wins, as both Chicago and Memphis are rebuilding and both Golden State and New Orleans were without multiple starters.

Speaking of New Orleans, the Houston Rockets beat the Pelicans 122-116 in the Big Easy. The Rockets shot just 12-for-41 from the 3-point line, but they made 22 free throws and they shot 51.8 percent from the field overall.

Five players finished in double-figures for Houston, but it was James Harden’s huge fourth quarter that sealed the win for the Rockets. Let’s take a look at the grades for each individual Rockets player.

Next: The starters

Next: The bench

Tyson Chandler and Thabo Sefolosha played just 15 combined minutes in this game, so we won’t give them individual grades. However, Chandler moved well on defense and the Rockets outscored the Pelicans by 22 points when Chandler was on the floor, a team-high.

The Rockets have had an extremely easy schedule over the past four games after playing the Grizzlies, Warriors, Bulls and Pelicans. They’ll face the Clippers on Wednesday, but fortunately Paul George won’t make his season debut until Thursday. After that, they have matchups with the Pacers and Timberwolves, who are both 6-4 to start the season.

The Rockets will need more magic from Harden, Westbrook and Capela in order to keep their winning streak alive going forward.