News » Keeping things simple is working just fine for the Houston Rockets

MINNEAPOLIS -- Keeping things simple is working just fine for the Houston Rockets. Virgil van Dijk Jersey . Dwight Howard had 18 points and 15 rebounds, and the surging Rockets used a fourth-quarter push to hold off the Minnesota Timberwolves 107-89 Monday night for their sixth consecutive victory. Chandler Parsons had 20 points and James Harden scored 19 for the Rockets, who have won six straight for the first time since taking seven in a row in January 2012. All five starters scored in double figures for Houston, which has won nine of 11 and 14 of 18. "Its just not trying to make the spectacular play, giving up good shots for great shots, not forcing anything. Thats what weve been doing really good lately and its a lot more fun to play that way," Parsons said. "We have so many talented guys, we can be so balanced every single night." The short-handed Timberwolves do not have that luxury right now. Back after missing one game with a bruised left quadriceps, Kevin Love led Minnesota with 31 points and 10 rebounds. Chase Budinger had 15 points as a fill-in starter and Alexey Shved scored 11 off the bench for the Timberwolves, who have lost four straight and six of seven. Ricky Rubio, who had three straight games in double figures, including a career-best 25 points on Saturday, was 2 of 10 for seven points. Loves strong game -- including a career-best 23 first-half points -- was needed because Minnesota played without starting guard Kevin Martin (broken thumb) and centre Nikola Pekovic (right ankle bursitis). Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman also was absent due to personal reasons. He is expected back Wednesday. Assistant coach Terry Porter filled in for Adelman, but was left scratching his head. "Unfortunately for us, we couldnt make shots," Porter said. "Guys that normally make shots struggled. We had good looks, but just couldnt knock them down. On those misses, they ran out, got some easy baskets and extended the lead." After its 15-point lead had dwindled to four, Houston scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to push its cushion to 93-78. Parsons had a pair of fast-break layups and a dunk to spark the run. This time, the Rockets did not let Minnesota counter with a run, outscoring the Timberwolves 25-11 in the quarter -- Minnesotas lowest-scoring period of the year. "Its almost been like that three games in a row where weve been in pretty good position, either ahead or right within striking distance," Love said. "Then in those first few minutes the other team just gets off to a better start than you do and pushes the lead up. We just need to be better in the fourth quarter." Howard said the key surge came about because the Rockets slowed things down. "We didnt try to rush shots and rush down the floor and take bad shots. We took our time, shared the ball and got good shots," he said. "We do an excellent job of sharing the ball and finding an open man. When we do that its hard for teams to decide what theyre going to do, if theyre going to double out the posts or stay with the 3-point shooters. We just want to make teams make tough decisions on the floor." Down by nine at the break, Minnesota scored the first six points of the second half, but Patrick Beverley had five of his 14 points as Houston countered with a 12-0 spurt to extend its lead to 79-64. The Rockets then began to work the shot clock, but couldnt get shots to fall. Instead, a 12-3 run got Minnesota within four heading into the fourth quarter. Behind 10 points from Harden -- including a pair of 3-pointers -- Houston led 34-28 after one. Love had 17 points in the quarter, including 15 straight at one point for the Timberwolves. Houston had two dunks and a pair of layups as part of a 10-2 run that bumped the lead to 56-45 with 3:43 to play in the second. The Rockets led 67-58 at the break, the most points Minnesota has allowed in a first half this season. NOTES: The Timberwolves were 21 for 21 from the free throw line, but had no attempts in the fourth quarter. ... Houston, which averages an NBA-high 31.22 free throw attempts per game, had just 20. ... Minnesota starting forward Corey Brewer and centre Ronny Turiaf were a combined 3 for 8, scoring just seven points in 48 minutes. ... Houston is home Wednesday against Washington, its lone home game in an eight-game span. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Jersey . The Broncos quarterback earned the offensive award Wednesday after passing for 374 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-21 win over the Raiders Monday night. Manning completed 32-of-37 passes and had a passer rating of 135. Jordan Henderson Liverpool Jersey . -- The Guelph Storm are moving on to the Western Conference final after defeating the London Knights 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League playoff action. http://www.soccerliverpoolproshop.com/c-15-simon-mignolet-liverpool-fc-jersey.aspx . Every. Single. Game. Thats 1,230 in total to cover the regular season. The man is Corey Sznajder, a soft-spoken 23-year-old Salisbury University grad who lives in Annapolis, Maryland and has been charting zone entries and zone exits throughout the NHL. I love big projects, he said. No kidding. At the 2013 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I met Eric Tulsky, who presented research on the value of controlled zone entries (short answer: about twice as valuable to enter with control of the puck rather than dumping it in) and Sznajder had charted a couple hundred games that were included in that study.TORONTO a€“ Just about everyone had cleared off the ice from practice on Monday morning, but there just outside the crease of the goal with a batch of pucks was the player few could have expected to be here. He was the smallest player on hand at Maple Leafs training camp a€“ generously listed at 5-foot-8 and nearly 170 pounds a€“ but by the time the annual two-week exercise was through, nobody in Toronto may have made a bigger name for himself than Brandon Kozun, the plucky, smallish 24-year-old from southern California. Kozun is ultimately a symbol of the competitive environment Torontos coaching staff and management team hoped to create this fall and then again for the coming season, one where merit looms largest. A deeper batch of forwards means (or so the club hopes) a constant battle for ice-time and opportunity, a reality the team rarely had last year or in seasons past. Hes made it very difficult for us to not have him here by the way hes played, said Leafs general manager, Dave Nonis, of Kozun, stressing that he had much to prove in the days ahead. But that is the type of competition that we need. Theres going to be somebody not playing on Wednesday [in the season-opener] that probably expected to and thats fine. We made statements that there was going to be opportunities afforded to people who came in and earned them, added head coach, Randy Carlyle, and we feel that some people have stepped to the front of the line and showed us that theyre worthy of at least starting with our hockey club. Kozun, a Kings sixth round pick in 2009, stood out more and more as the exhibition season rolled along, his combination of speed, disruptiveness and offensive potential proving attractive to team brass. He tallied five points in six games, including two assists and a rewind-and-replay caliber of goal in the finale against Detroit on Friday night. Its exciting to get a chance after playing a couple years in the minors, he said, the reality of the moment yet to set in before Wednesdays opener against Montreal. Its pretty exciting for myself, but on the other hand, theres a lot of work to be done. Im not going to try and get comfortable, Im going to try and keep working hard and see where it goes. The Leafs have to hope that such an attitude infects their dressing room, one that sees teammates pushing one another for opportunity. They didnt have it much last year. Depth forwards like Jerred Smithson, Troy Bodie, Colton Orr, and Frazer McLaren were ill-equipped to capably play higher in the lineup if the need arose and the team suffered because of it. There are a number of players in this group who have the potential to play up and down the lineup in a variety of positions a€“ Daniel Winnik, Mike Santorelli, and Leo Komarov can all play both wing and centre a€“ a luxury that offers Carlyle increased flexibility. I think our thirrd and fourth lines are going to look different than they have in the past, said Nonis. Roberto Firmino Jersey. Those third and fourth lines will be interchangeable many nights. Peter Holland could be the third line centre one night and fall behind Mike Santorelli a night or two later if his performance dips. The Leafs hope that pushes a young player like Holland, who offered hints of potential in 39 games last year, to work harder, train longer, and perform more consistently. And if hes not up to task, someone like the 28-year-old Santorelli will be there to scoop up the extra opportunity. You have options, Carlyle said. If we feel that somebody is not giving us what theyre capable of, then theres an option of somebody else going in and taking their minutes. Its cruel, but were here to win hockey games and thats what weve got to do. Winnik is amongst the new crop of depth forwards the Leafs brought in during a busy offseason. Skating in Anaheim the past two seasons, hes well-versed in the type of competitive environment Toronto is trying to create. There was no better example of that last year than the now-retired Teemu Selanne, benched at points with the Ducks during what proved to be the end of a legendary career. Guys a legend, definitely a Hall of Fame player, and he got healthy scratched as well so no one was really safe in Anaheim, Winnik said. It just pushes guys to be better every night. If you have a spell of bad games or if it goes further than that, a spell of a bad month, you know youre not going to be in the lineup. It keeps everyone honest, thats for sure. More depth (or the vision of it at least) also means less strain on the Leafs top line, which shouldered a heavy burden last season. James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, and Phil Kessel all finished amongst the leagues most utilized forwards in 2013-14 and perhaps not coincidentally tapered off in the final weeks of the season. Carlyle has the employ to spread minutes around more evenly a€“ on the penalty kill, additionally in the case of Bozak and perhaps, van Riemsdyk a€“ and thus gather contributions from areas of the lineup which offered almost nothing tangible last season. That will aid in improving the teams possession at even-strength and drive the speedier brand of hockey Carlyle has talked about implementing this season. I think were deeper, Nonis said. We didnt have the depth up front that we have this year. As for Kozun, whom the Leafs acquired from the Kings in a January trade, Nonis didnt envision a standout camp of this kind. He imagined the Los Angeles native pushing for a job and proving his worth as a depth player, but hes performed at a different level than we anticipated. This is no finish line though for Kozun, or so he (and the club) hopes. Its been a long couple years, he said, so Im not going to take anything for granted. Cheap Canadiens Jerseys Cheap Predators Jerseys Cheap Devils Jerseys Cheap Islanders Jerseys Cheap Rangers Jerseys Cheap Senators Jerseys Cheap Flyers Jerseys Cheap Penguins Jerseys Cheap Sharks Jerseys Cheap Blues Jerseys Cheap Lightning Jerseys Cheap Maple Leafs Jerseys Cheap Canucks Jerseys Cheap Golden Knights Jerseys Cheap Capitals Jerseys Cheap Winnipeg Jets Jerseys ' ' '