James Harden scored 38 points and the Houston Rockets held off the Golden State Warriors 112-108 on Monday to knot their NBA playoff series at two games apiece.
The reigning champion Warriors head home for game five of the best-of-seven Western Conference clash on Wednesday with a lot of work to do in a series in which each game has been decided by six or fewer points.
Harden scored 13 of his 18 first-half points in the second quarter and added another 13 in the third, when the Rockets stretched their lead to as many as 17.
The Warriors responded with an 11-0 scoring run in the third period, and put together a 7-0 run late in the fourth, when they pulled within 108-110 on a Stephen Curry three-pointer with 19.3 seconds left.
Down 111-108 with 11.5 seconds remaining, Golden State saw Kevin Durant and Curry miss three-point attempts.
“Our motto was keep fighting,” said Harden, who also pulled down 10 rebounds. “We know how tough they are. We’ve got to keep fighting on both ends of the floor, stay in attack mode, be aggressive.”
Eric Gordon added 20 points for the Rockets and PJ Tucker added 17 and 10 rebounds.
Durant paced the Warriors with 34 points. Curry added 30 points and Draymond Green posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.
But in another bruising encounter between the two teams, Golden State made just eight of 33 three-point attempts. Curry and Klay Thompson combined to shoot just two-of-10 from three-point range.
The Rockets, meanwhile, hit 17 of 50 from beyond the arc.
“I think both teams are doing what they’re doing and nothing’s really happened yet,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
“It’s 2-2. Each team has won two home games — that’s kind of how the playoffs go … We’ve just got to be a little better.”