Houston Rockets Win!
Tracy McGrady scored 23 points and Yao Ming added 21 as the Houston Rockets finally held onto a lead to beat the Denver Nuggets 89-78 on Friday night. The Rockets ,who had squandered double-digit second-half leads in their last two losses to Philadelphia and Phoenix, finally closed the deal tonight.
But on Friday they overcame an eight-point deficit midway through the second quarter and didn't trail again.
Andre Miller's nifty reverse layup got Denver within 76-70 with about 6 minutes left. But a 3-pointer by Rafer Alston followed by a monster two-handed dunk by Yao extended Houston's lead to 81-70.
Yao followed his dunk with a block on Kenyon Martin that sent the ball flying into the crowd and the Nuggets wouldn't threaten again.
Denver got 34 points from Carmelo Anthony in his best outing since the All-Star break, but he didn't get much help and only scored four points in the fourth. The Nuggets second-leading scorer was Marcus Camby with 10 points.
Houston outscored Denver 14-4 in the opening minutes of the third quarter, led by Yao's eight points, to build its two-point halftime lead to 60-48.
Anthony single-handedly led a comeback as he outscored the Rockets 12-4 in the next few minutes to cut the lead to 64-60. He was hot for most of the second half until the fourth quarter when the Rockets adjusted there defense. Yao Ming had a monster block on Andre Miller in the fourth quarter as Andre challenged the big man on a dunk. Yao emphatically blocked the shot and sealed the Houston Rockets momentum. It's the Rockets first win of the season over Denver after the Nuggets won the first two
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