NEW YORK _ The team owning the NBA's second-best record and featuring the league's leading scorer paid a visit to Barclays Center Tuesday night to face the struggling Nets.
Fair fight?
Yes, it was. Brooklyn trailed Houston by just six with fewer than two minutes to go, but James Harden scored six of his 36 in the final 1:03 to help the Rockets earn a 123-113 win.
Harden came in with a league-high 31.2-point average. His esteemed backcourt partner, Chris Paul, contributed 25 points.
DeMarre Carroll hit a season-high five 3-pointers and paced the Nets with 21 points. Spencer Dinwiddie also made five 3s and finished with 18 points. Jarrett Allen added 16 and Jahlil Okafor had 15.
The Nets (19-36) trailed by as many as 11 in the second quarter, but they got it down to two by halftime. Houston was up 79-74 in the third, and then the Nets went on a 10-1 run. Dinwiddie tossed in a pair of threes, including one from 30 feet that gave them an 84-80 lead with 3:37 left in the period.
The Rockets (39-13) responded with a 16-2 run to take a 96-86 advantage into the fourth.
To make matters worse for the Nets, Caris LeVert was injured in the final seconds of the third when he ran into a Nene screen. He went to be evaluated for a possible concussion and didn't return.
The margin swelled to as many as 16 in the final quarter before a late Nets burst cut it to 117-111 with 1:22 left.
