The Houston Rockets defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 122 - 103 Wednesday at Staples Center. After a high - scoring, competitive first quarter, the Rockets (43 - 19) wasted no time opening up the game in the second period and building their lead up to 12 points before entering the locker room. From there, Houston continued to pour it on from there and reached a lead as large as 30 points as the two teams entered the fourth quarter. James Harden led the way scoring four the Rockets with a game - high 26 points to go along with nine assists in 36 minutes, while Ryan Andersen was hitting on all cylinders Wednesday night, hitting 6 - of - 11 shots from behind the arc en route to scoring 23 points in 30 minutes. His shooting was contagious, as the entire Houston team hit 20 threes, proving to have too much firepower for their opponent. Their opponent, the Clippers (36 - 24), proved to be overmatched once again by a Western Conference foe and have now lost three of their last four games after entering the All-Star break on a four - game winning streak. As a result of the loss, the Clippers are now just a half - game ahead of the sixth - place Grizzlies and one game ahead of the Thunder at the No. 7 spot. Blake Griffin led the way scoring for Los Angeles, but had just 17 points, four rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes. Chris Paul had a double - double of 16 points and 11 assists, but he shot a disappointing 5 - of - 13 from the field. As a team, the Clippers managed to shoot just 44 percent from the field in the embarrassing defeat. Up next, the Rockets will head home Saturday to take on the Grizzlies, while the Clippers will look to get back on the right track in Milwaukee on Friday.
["TeamStat(G,'Clippers') has 24 Losses ,has 103 Total points ,has 36 Wins ."
 "TeamStat(G,'Rockets') has 19 Losses ,has 122 Total points ,has 43 Wins ."]