James Harden reminds Austin Rivers he’s not Chris Paul with nasty crossover

But while this helps the spacing, this does not help protect the glass or guard the rim.

However, other reports believe Durant may head to the capital of the United States – Washington – where he gets to play for his hometown and join another talented young point guard in John Wall.

On the Clippers end, point guard Chris Paul and power forward Blake Griffin led their team scoring 24 and 23 points in the order mentioned. They have the running game going as well, with LaGarette Blount and Dion Lewis, and Brandon LaFell is back and healthy with four catches for 47 yards against the Dolphins.

But the plus side out of all of this comes with the fact that Harden had to score just shy of 50 points to even make that much of an impact on the game.

Lakers 104, Nets 98: NEW YORK – Kobe Bryant scored 18 points, his highest performance since opening night, and Los Angeles beat winless Brooklyn for its first victory of the season.

The Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen reports that Terrence Jones (eyelid laceration) and Patrick Beverley (concussion) will not play in both games on this road trip.

The team started 0-3 to open the season and they have been playing better over the last stretch of games. Houston, who dropped their first three games by a combined 60 points, have won four in a row.

Doc Rivers shouldered the blame, saying he didn’t have a good enough game plan in place against Harden. “That’s what we have to hang our hats on”.

With Thornton and Harden hitting 3-pointers, Houston led by 11 midway through the fourth.

The Clippers pulled to within 105-102 on a layup by Redick and two free throws by Griffin with 1:04 remaining. That turned out to be the difference.

Griffin missed a shot in the lane and a tip with 16.9 seconds left.

In the words of Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle, the Rockets want him and “will do everything they reasonably can” to ink the former University of Texas standout.

“It was a great win”, said Howard, who was limited to 29 minutes because of foul trouble. Rivers, who is a member of the NBA’s Rules Committee, said afterward he wished the referees had erred on the side of caution by calling the goaltending violation so that they would have had an opportunity to review the play.

Jerryd Bayless had 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 10 rebounds, and Khris Middleton chipped in with 14 points and nine rebounds. I don’t think we were very organized, which is on me.

CLIPPERS CENTER DEANDRE JORDAN “We didn’t have a sense of urgency defensively”.

PHILADELPHIA – Elfrid Payton scored 12 of his season-high 20 points in the final 7:45 as Orlando held off Philadelphia.

“I give him a lot of credit, he’s been working on his game since he’s been here”, Collison said.