The Houston Rockets (17 - 19) defeated the Utah Jazz (15 - 18) 93 - 91 on Monday. The Rockets looked like two entirely different teams during the first and second halves while visiting Utah. Down 58 - 48 at halftime and surrendering 37 second quarter points, the defensive breakdowns and sloppy fouls began to bury the Rockets early on. James Harden provided a major spark to the offense during the second half, combined with Montrezl Harrell's boost on defense, and the result was a Rockets win. Harden finished with 30 points, five rebounds and seven assists on 9 - of - 25 shooting. Dwight Howard added 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Harrell's defensive prowess was only highlighted statistically by his plus/minus of nine. The Rockets were dealing with an onslaught of injuries heading into the game. Ty Lawson (ankle), Donatas Motiejunas (back) and Marcus Thornton (personal reasons) were unavailable for Houston in the win. The Jazz were unable to execute their second half game plan down the stretch, and once James Harden got going, there was not much any defense can do to stop the current second best scorer in the league. Injuries also riddled Utah heading into Monday, as Derrick Favors (back) was sidelined. The bright side to Favors' injury is the playing time that Trey Lyles has been seeing in his absence. The Kentucky product and No. 12 pick in the draft, Lyles finished with 13 points in 20 minutes on 6 - of - 10 shooting. Utah continued to find Rodney Hood around the perimeter and the starting guard turned in 23 points on 5 - of - 6 3 - point shooting. Gordon Hayward continues to regress in 2015 - 2016, as the max contract forward added 20 points on 39 percent shooting, to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. The Jazz and Rockets will meet again on Thursday in Houston.
["PlayerStat(G,'Dwight Howard') has 16 Assists ,has 13 3-pointers attempted ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'James Harden') has 7 Assists ,has 25 3-pointers attempted ,has 9 3-pointers made ,has 9 Field goals attempted ,has 30 Field goals made ,has 5 Field goal percentage ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Gordon Hayward') has 3 Assists ,has 39 3-pointers attempted ,has 20 3-pointers made ,has 7 Field goals attempted ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Trey Lyles') has 10 Assists ,has 6 3-pointers attempted ,has 13 3-pointers made ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Rodney Hood') has 6 Assists ,has 5 3-pointers attempted ,has 23 3-pointers made ."]