The Houston Rockets (31 - 32) defeated the Toronto Raptors (41 - 20) 113 - 107 on Sunday. The importance of the rather unlikely road victory for Houston can not be underscored, as the Rockets had come in to the contest having dropped three of their previous four games and in tangible danger of losing their grip on the eighth seed in the conference. Further dampening their prospects was the Raptors' formidable defense, as well as the 12 - game home winning streak they carried into the Sunday night affair. Despite the rather long odds and a 61 - 51 halftime deficit, the visitors rallied on the strength of a typically remarkable effort from James Harden, who collected at least 40 points for the third time in the last six games. Corey Brewer also played a pivotal role off the bench with a 23 - point tally, and the oft - maligned Houston defense was able to elicit 15 turnovers from Toronto. The superior second - half performance was enough to earn the Rockets their first win north of the border since the 2006 - 2007 campaign. Harden added 14 assists, five rebounds and a steal to his game - high 40 - point total, and made a whopping 19 visits to the charity stripe. Brewer paced the Rockets reserves with his aforementioned 23 points, and supplemented it with four rebounds and a trio of assists. Dwight Howard was right behind with a 21 - point, 11 - rebound double - double that also included an assist, a steal and two blocks. Trevor Ariza followed with 13 points, two assists, a rebound and three steals. Although he could n't quite get into double digits in scoring, Patrick Beverley generally held his own against Kyle Lowry and filled out the stat sheet with seven points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. The Rockets are currently in fourth place in the Western Conference's Southwest Division, and they retain a rather tenuous hold on the eighth seed in the conference by one - and - one - half games over the Utah Jazz. They now head to Philadelphia to face off against the Sixers on Wednesday night. For a change, the Raptors were paced on offense by someone not named Lowry or DeMar DeRozan. Luis Scola surprisingly led the way for Toronto, as he capitalized on his matchup against the Rockets' woeful power forward defense to post 21 points, three rebounds and a steal. DeRozan did follow close behind with 19 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals. Lowry was next with 17 points, nine assists, four rebounds and three steals. Jonas Valanciunas put in a full day's work against Dwight Howard, posting a 12 - point, 10 - rebound double - double that also included a trio of blocks. Corey Joseph (nine points, five rebounds and three assists) and Terrence Ross (nine points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal) co - led the Toronto bench. Despite the defeat, the Raptors remain atop the Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division, and retain the second seed in the conference. They're home against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night.
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