SAN ANTONIO -- The Houston Rockets gave away a 23-point lead, Dwight Howard was being fouled intentionally and the disdain of the San Antonio Spurs sellout crowd was roaring down on them in the final minutes of the game. Stephane Ruffier France Jersey . It was a tense situation that Houston would have folded under last season, James Harden readily admits. The Rockets demonstrated Saturday night that they are a different team this season, even if it is early. Harden scored 31 points, Chandler Parsons had 25, and Houston overcame a furious second-half rally to beat San Antonio 112-106, handing the Spurs their first home defeat. "Its a great win for us," Harden said. "Last year we probably would have caved in; they would have beaten us by a lot. So, this year the improvement weve adjusted to has been tremendous. A back-to-back in San Antonio is always tough, but we showed resiliency and pulled out a great win." Harden had 16 points in the final quarter, going 4 for 8 from the field and 7 for 10 on free throws in leading Houston (13-5) to its fifth straight victory. Howard had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Terrence Jones added 10 points and 16 boards, and Patrick Beverly scored 11 points. Tony Parker had 27 points, Tim Duncan added 20 and Marco Belinelli scored 18 for San Antonio (14-3), which has lost two of three. San Antonio outscored Houston 39-26 to open the second half, with Belinelli scoring 13 points after halftime to set up a furious finish. Harden hit a high-arcing, off-balance 3-pointer to tie the game at 106 with a minute remaining. "That was the shot of the game," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Parker then missed a driving layup over Howard, and Beverly tipped in Hardens miss to put Houston up 108-106 with 32 seconds remaining. Manu Ginobili missed a 3-pointer, enabling Houston to outlet to Parsons for a dunk and a 110-106 lead with 16 seconds left to seal a victory over its longtime state rival. "Its going to be a dogfight every time we see these guys," Howard said. "And thats what we want. Thats going to make us better as a team, and its going to make it fun for the fans to watch." San Antonio finished 9 for 26 on 3s, including 2 for 9 in the first half. Without the Spurs usual crisp ball movement, Parker was forced to take the offence into his own hands, going 13 for 27 from the field. "Definitely," Harden said. "If you get Tony Parker to put a lot of shots up, it takes away from all their guys knocking down 3s and getting us off balance." The Rockets responded to a late first-half spurt by the Spurs by opening the second half on a 13-2 run that Parsons and Harden opened and closed with 3-pointers. The run appeared to fire up Duncan, who scored seven of the Spurs 13 points in one stretch, including an alley-oop-dunk in front of Howard. The Spurs were energized by their stoic leader showing some fire, closing within 81-80 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. "They battled back," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "It got scrappy and dirty, and they got really physical with us. They got a little lead, and our guys made some big plays and battled back down the stretch." Belinelli hit consecutive 3s to give San Antonio an 85-83 lead early in the final quarter, its first since going up 12-11 with 6:34 left in the first. He added another 3 to give the Spurs an 88-83 advantage. "Its a great lesson for us," Popovich said. "When you play a good basketball team, youve got to come with passion, an edge and aggressiveness for 48 minutes - and we did that for a half. (The Spurs) got embarrassed for a whole half. In the second half, their aggressiveness and attention to detail was very good. They got themselves back in the game." San Antonio shot 80 per cent in the opening minutes compared to 28 per cent by Houston, but the Rockets were able to stay within a basket until their offence began flowing. Early in the game Howard ran isolation plays against Duncan, performing the "Dream Shake" taught to him in the off-season by Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon on one possession to set up a short hook in the lane. "On every team that Dwights on it seems that focus is inside and the shooters get a lot more open looks," Duncan said. "Thats a byproduct of having him in there and the shooters shooting the ball well obviously. Its tough. They are tough and well see what happens next time." NOTES: Houston G Jeremy Lin and F Greg Smith both missed the game with sprained right knees. It was the second straight game Lin has missed. . A scene from the 2004 movie "The Alamo" was shown during the first quarter, making the Spurs the defenders of the Alamo and Texas, and the Rockets as the invading army. . "Lets go Rockets!" chants broke out during the game. ... Popovich was assessed a technical foul after screaming at official Tom Washington for allowing McHale to stand within a foot of Duncan as he attempted to inbound the ball on the final play of the first half. After stepping in front of Duncan several times to prevent Washington from handing him the ball while he argued a non-call, McHale stood an arms length beside the Spurs forward as he threw the ball three-quarters of the court to Ginobili. "I was in the coachs box," McHale said. "I probably shouldve gone and sat my big (butt) on the other side." France Soccer Jersey . Who knew then that the Bombers would be 2-12 and facing playoff elimination when they returned to Montreal three months later? Watch the game on TSN starting at 12:30pm et/9:30am pt. Michel Platini France Jersey .15 million. The 29-year-old Emery compiled a 15-9-4 record and 2.81 goals-against-average in 34 appearances for the Blackhawks this year, his first season in Chicago.EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Although Chicago and Los Angeles have won the last two Stanley Cup titles, Matt Greene and his fellow Kings realize the Blackhawks have been superior whenever the two championship teams were on the ice together recently. Chicagos recent mastery of the Kings completely came apart in one crazy period, and the Blackhawks are headed to the West Coast to figure out how to get it back. When the teams return Saturday night for Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, the Kings hope to build on their five-goal third period in a 6-2 victory on Wednesday night, evening the series in dramatic fashion. Until Game 2, Chicago had beaten the Kings six straight times and in nine of the clubs last 10 meetings dating back to last seasons conference finals. The Blackhawks had been faster and more offensively creative than the Kings, but it all went away in a barrage of goals that set a distinctly different tone for Game 3. "Its been a series thats gone in their favour for the last couple of years now," Greene said Thursday at the Kings training complex. "Weve got to do our best to change that. If we could put a finger on it, we would. But its up to us to figure it out and to keep it going and get some more wins. ... I dont think they have a mental edge on us, no. Youve just got to go out and play." Both teams essentially took Thursday off, gathering only for travel or a team meeting. While the Kings downplayed the importance of momentum from their win, the Blackhawks had an extra day to absorb the shock of their second four-goal defeat in the last six playoff games. "I woke up this morning way more angry than I exited the game," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Thursday before the team flew to the West Coast. "Normally its the other way around. ... A game like that is a game that should get your attention, and I think thats where were at." Quenneville felt the loss was a significant setback for the Blackhawks only because of how it occurred. The two-time champion coach couldnt recall such an abrupt reversal of momentum against Chicago in any game this season. Quenneville thought his team essentially played a perfect game for the first 38 minutes, taking a 2-0 lead before it all fell apart with Los Angeles first goal. The Blackhawks arent a team that falls apart, but the Kings have a wway of making opponents do things they never imagined under playoff pressure. Thierry Henry France Jersey. "I think it was probably a little bit of a shock to us all," Chicago defenceman Nick Leddy said. "But thats how playoffs are." The Kings feel it wasnt just momentum that gave them home-ice advantage in this series. Los Angeles had been making strides against the defending champions for months, and coach Darryl Sutter thought his team played much better in its series-opening defeat than its victory. "I dont think it was momentum," Sutter said. "It was more once we were down two (goals), I think it was our ability — and were good at that — our ability to stay with it and stick with the game." That game is showing a few unexpected facets lately. The Kings are now the highest-scoring team in the Stanley Cup playoffs with 3.25 goals per game, a shocking number for a defence-first team that struggled mightily to score for much of the regular season. But the Kings success in Game 2 was due to its usual strengths on defence. Los Angeles defence on Chicagos top scorers was uniformly solid. Anze Kopitar shadowed Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, who didnt record a shot, while Patrick Kane failed to score a point for the second straight game. The Kings excelled on special teams, killing a two-man Chicago advantage and scoring the tying and go-ahead goals on their own power plays. Los Angeles also dominated the faceoff circle, following up its impressive work late in the second round against Anaheim. "Theyre huge momentum-swingers every time," Greene said. "A good (penalty-kill) can do wonders for you in terms of momentum, and a good power play. The coaches do a good job emphasizing you dont need to score on the power play. You just need to make sure you build momentum and get a good two minutes going in their zone. Last night, everything was clicking. Those were two huge power-play goals for us there. They really turned around the game in our favour." Bruising forward Andrew Shaw is expected to be available to the Blackhawks for Game 3 after missing Wednesdays game with a lower-body injury, his seventh straight game out of the lineup. The Kings arent likely to see defenceman Robyn Regehr, whose knee injury has kept him out for eight games. wholesale jerseys authentic wholesale jerseys nfl cheap cheap jerseys Cheap Jerseys china wholesale jerseys ' ' '
