Down Ty Lawson and Danilo Gallinari, you'd think the Denver Nuggets' offense might struggle without their two leading scorers, but they showed no signs Saturday night as they ran the Houston Rockets out of the gym, winning 132-114.
Rockets vs. Nuggets final: Denver drops Houston in 132-114 shootout
The Nuggets overcame a sluggish start and the absence of their two leading scorers to continue their dominance at home.
The Nuggets did struggle early in the game, as the Rockets jumped out to a 35-25 first quarter lead. The Nuggets responded with three straight quarters of 30-plus points. They had seven players in double figures despite being down Lawson and Gallinari. Corey Brewer led the charge off the bench, scoring 22 points, while Wilson Chandler, starting in place of Gallinari, stepped in and scored 21 points. Andre Iguodala scored 18 points and dished out a season-high 14 assists.
After a sluggish second quarter, the Rockets kept scoring in the second half but couldn't buy a defensive stop. James Harden showed a little bit of rust in his first second-half of a back-to-back since returning from a foot injury, scoring just 14 points on 2/10 shooting. Jeremy Lin led the Rockets with 23 points and eight assists. Despite the loss, the Rockets remain 2 1/2 games up on the Los Angeles Lakers for seventh place in the Western Conference. Denver moved 1 1/2 games up on the Memphis Grizzlies for third place.
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