Yao Leads Rockets Rally In Fourth Quarter, Beat Hawks 92-84

Posted by Stephen Rhodes under NBA Game Recap

I’m not about to dog the Atlanta Hawks as in my opinion, they are still going through growing pains with their young, yet very talented roster. That was illustrated quite well on Tuesday when they went to Toyota Center to take on the Houston Rockets. The game – and the victory – was well within reach for them; however, the Rockets’ Yao Ming led a big comeback in the fourth quarter as they came from eight points down to beat the Hawks 92-84.

Defense was the order of the day as neither team shot very well – Atlanta at 39.1% and Houston at 43.2% – and there were plenty of blocks and steals to go around. Houston opened the game on a 13-0 run as the Hawks missed their first ten shots; Josh Smith finally got Atlanta in the scoring column with a putback with 6:52 left in the first quarter. The Hawks missed 22 of their first 26 shots (15.4%) and trailed 31-16 three minutes into the second period; after a much-needed timeout, Flip Murray blocked a shot by Houston’s Carl Landry and found Smith for the flush to give Atlanta a bit of momentum.

All of a sudden, Houston went cold and a 3-pointer by Mike Bibby capped a 14-4 run by the Hawks to cut the Rockets’ lead to 37-32; Ron Artest would then drain a 3 with 24 ticks left in the first half, boosting Houston’s advantage to 46-36. Bibby would make a layup just before the halftime buzzer as the Rockets went into halftime up 46-38. Four turnovers by Houston and a basket by Al Horford later, Atlanta would only trail by 2; But a trey by Marvin Williams on the Hawks’ next possession gave them their first lead of the game.

Joe Johnson would score 5 points in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter to stretch the Hawks’ lead to six; but Ming scored twice and Landry tipped in a miss to cut the Rockets’ deficit to 2. Artest would drain a 3 with 5:11 remaining in the game, but Horford would respond with a jumper; Ming then would muscle in with a layup, then Rafer Alston sank a pair of free throws and Artest scored twice to push Houston’s lead to 83-78 lead near the 3:00 mark. Ming rebounded a miss by Atlanta’s Zaza Pachulia, then found Alston who hit a trey, which sealed the deal for Houston.

Ming led all Houston scorers, nearly joining the 20-20 club as he scored 24 points with 19 rebounds, an assist, a steal and 2 blocked shots but 5 turnovers while Artest added 19 with 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocked shots; Luis Scola recorded a double-double as he scored 12 with 10 rebounds. Atlanta was led by Johnson with 22 points (including three 3’s), 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal while Bibby added 15 (including 3 treys) with a rebound and a blocked shot; Smith notched a double-double, scoring 13 with 11 rebounds. Houston (14-8) plays again on Friday when they travel to Oakland to face the Golden State Warriors while Atlanta (12-8) makes the short trip to San Antonio to take on the Spurs on Wednesday night.

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