KAWHI Leonard outdueled James Harden in the fourth quarter to lead the San Antonio Spurs comeback win over the Houston Rockets, 112-110, at the AT&T Center on Monday (Tuesday, Manila time).
Both Leonard and Harden finished with 39 points, but the Spurs star outscored the Rockets gunner 17-4 in the final period and even had a huge block in the closing seconds to complete the San Antonio comeback from 16 points down.
San Antonio trailed Houston, 39-23, after one quarter and still faced a 13-point deficit midway through the third quarter before the Spurs went on a 17-2 run to take the upper hand near the end of the period.
The Rockets, though, unleashed a 16-5 blitz to start the fourth quarter to regain control, and led 104-98 with less than four minutes remaining. Leonard began to take over with seven straight points to retake the lead. Harden split his charities to put Houston back up 108-107 with 39 seconds left, but Leonard answered with a huge triple and made a big block on the Houston star’s layup in the next play before sealing the win with a pair of free throws.
Tony Parker added 19 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 15 markers to push the Spurs win streak to eight and improve to 49-13.
Trevor Ariza had 13 points while Eric Gordon and Clint Capela each had 12 markers for the Rockets (44-20).