Rockets have Lawson on the block

The Houston Rockets are committed to point guard Ty Lawson, but his representatives are investigating his trade value with other teams, according to multiple sources.

James Harden and Dwight Howard produced double-doubles and the Houston Rockets recorded their fourth consecutive win over the Los Angeles Clippers, 107-97, Saturday night at Toyota Center. The Rockets traded four backup players for the talented point guard in the offseason.

The Rockets are engaged in trade talks with teams to move Lawson, who was handed a two-game suspension Friday for a DUI charge stemming from an incident in 2014.

At 13-14, the Rockets are seventh in the Western Conference but nine games behind the pace-setting Spurs in the Southwest division.

The Los Angeles Clippers trip to Houston ended the same way their season did: with a blow out loss to the Rockets. The Clippers finally broke the drought on a 3-pointer by Jamal Crawford with about 4 1/2 minutes left in the first. Jordan Hill finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds. The Clippers would slow the game to a grinding halt and take the Rockets out of their offensive flow.

The Clippers trailed by 22 with about 8 minutes left in the second quarter when they started hacking Houston’s big men. The tactic helped the Clippers go on a 15-7 run to cut the lead to 50-36.

“We weren’t settling just for those jumpers”, Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.

Even after things bogged down in the second quarter via a parade of trips to the free-throw line, several Rockets proclaimed this their best effort start to finish, one indicative of their muddled promise. When a team goes to the hack-a-someone strategy it just makes fans want to hack-a-Doc-Rivers’-head-off.

Mike Conley added 20 points and eight assists as the Grizzlies snapped a two-game skid.