Rockets play complete game, blow out Knicks 118-99

Both the Rockets and the Knicks came into tonight’s game in the Big Apple on the second half of a back-to-back, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at Houston, as James Harden scored 30 points to go along with 15 assists and 6 rebounds to lead the Rockets to a 118-99 victory over New York.

The Rockets played their most complete game of the season thus far and received contributions from all areas. Montrezl Harrell, who played 27 minutes tonight due to Nene Hilario getting a night off, tied a career high with 17 points, while shooting 8-11 from the field, and set a new career high with 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Trez undoubtedly earned himself more time moving forward. He was active, efficient and Monstatrezz indeed.

K.J. McDaniels pitched in 4 huge blocked shots to go along with 5 points and 4 rebounds in 19 minutes, and Eric Gordon continued to serve as a perfect second scorer next to the Beard. Gordon scored 21 points, his new Rockets high, knocked down 4 triples and looks like the best new piece on this Houston team.

The other big free agent acquisition, Ryan Anderson, also had a nice game. He went for 16 points and 9 rebounds and knocked down 4 shots from beyond the arc. He seems to be slowly finding his groove, which makes the Rockets that much more dangerous.

Houston held the Knicks to 43.5 percent shooting, outrebounded them 54-34 and put in 25 second chance points in what was total domination pretty much from beginning to end.

Despite the the total team effort to get this win, the main story remains Harden and another ridiculous stat line (hope you all managed to snag him on your fantasy squad like I did). The Beard’s vision has been otherwordly, and he’s had the ball on a string and been two steps ahead of just about everyone. Speaking of steps, how about this nasty Eurostep from the Bearded one?

The Rockets held Carmelo Anthony to 21 points and Kristaps Porzingis to just 3 points and 8 boards. He didn’t hit a single shot from the field. Keep those guys from exploding, and you’re likely going to beat the Knicks and that’s exactly what happened.

The Rockets now get two days off in a row before heading to the ATL to battle the Hawks and ex-Rocket Dwight Howard. For now, though, the boys in red move to 3-2 on the season after looking exactly like we had hoped they would in the offseason lead up. Let’s see if they can keep it up on Saturday.