Kyle Lowry scored 20 points to go along with eight assists and six rebounds as the Houston Rockets used a late fourth quarter surge to top the LA Clippers, 96-83, at Toyota Center.
Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola both added 16 points for the Rockets, who have won two straight. Shane Battier contributed 10 points and six rebounds for the victors.
Randy Foye scored 20 points and Blake Griffin improved on his impressive rookie campaign with a 14-point, 11-rebound effort for the Clippers, who have dropped three of four.
Baron Davis contributed 14 points in the loss.
“We missed shots and we had too many turnovers,” Griffin said.
The Clippers took a 73-70 lead into the fourth quarter, however, the Rockets began the final stanza on a 16-2 run, capped by Brooks’ driving reverse layup with 3:33 remaining to put the game away for good.
Rookie Patrick Patterson scored all of his six points in the spurt as the Rockets’ lead reached 11 at 86-75.
Griffin ended the run with a turnaround bank shot, but Lowry’s reverse layup and long three-pointer a little over 2 1/2 minutes later expanded the Houston lead to a game-high 16 at 96-80, with 45.4 ticks remaining.
Foye’s layup and three-point conversion with 39.9 seconds remaining accounted for the final margin.
“It’s just a good win to get,” said Rockets head coach Rick Adelman. “The fourth quarter was terrific. We got a little surge there and we defended well.”
Scola paced the Rockets with 10 points in the first quarter and Houston held a 27-22 lead after one. The Clippers trimmed their deficit to 55-52 at the half after a back-and-forth second quarter.
The Rockets came out flat in the third quarter, shooting 4-of-19 from the field. The Clippers scored 12 of their 21 third quarter points in the paint as they took a slim 73-70 lead into the final stanza.