racy McGrady had 22 points, Yao Ming added 16 and the Houston Rockets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 89-77 on Saturday night for their third straight win.
Carl Landry had 14 points and a career-high tying 11 rebounds for Houston. Ron Artest, Luis Scola and Rafer Alston added 10 points apiece.
Houston wasn't sharp offensively, shooting just 36 percent, but led almost the entire way with excellent free-throw shooting (27-of-31). It helped that the Rockets got to the line 19 more times than Oklahoma City.
Houston led by six after three quarters and scored the first nine points in the fourth to stretch its lead to 15 with about 10 minutes left. The Rockets led by double digits the rest of the way.
Oklahoma City is still looking for its first win since leaving Seattle. The Thunder lost their opener to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
Kevin Durant, the reigning Rookie of the Year, had 26 points, five rebounds and four steals for Oklahoma City. Johan Petro and Jeff Green had 10 points each.
Along with rarely getting to the line, Oklahoma City missed all four of its 3-point attempts. Houston was 6-of-21 from 3-point range.
The announced crowd of 16,996 looked unusually thin and wasn't particularly loud for much of the game. The most excited fans seemed in the first half was when the public address announcer gave periodic updates on the Texas-Texas Tech football game.
They woke up a little in the fourth quarter after a nifty three-point play by Yao followed a dunk by Landry.
Oklahoma City put together an 8-0 run, helped by a pair of Houston turnovers, to cut the Rockets' lead to 34-32 about 3 minutes before halftime.
Houston had a scare in the second quarter when McGrady banged the back of his head on Yao's knee after tumbling to the ground following a layup. McGrady grimaced in pain as he lay on the court for a couple of minutes before slowly getting to his feet, shaking it off and making the free throw.
11/1/2008 11:12 PM
By KRISTIE RIEKEN
AP Sports Writer
HOUSTON
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming (11), of China, is fouled by Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chris Wilcox as he grabs an offensive rebound in the second half of their NBA basketball game in Houston, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008.
(AP Photo/Bob Levey)
racy McGrady had 22 points, Yao Ming added 16 and the Houston Rockets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 89-77 on Saturday night for their third straight win.
