Rockets topple Wolves, Cavs hold on to edge Magic

Eric Gordon scored 30 points and James Harden added 10 in his returnfrom injury as the Houston Rockets defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves116-98 on Thursday.Harden was back in the lineup after missing seven games with a lefthamstring strain and finished with 10 points on three-of-15 shooting. Heplayed 26 minutes and also had seven assists, two steals and twoblocks.Chris Paul had 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds, and ClintCapela added 20 points in the win. Houston has won 15 of the past 17meetings with Minnesota, including a 10-game winning streak at home.Coming into the NBA contest, Harden was leading the league in scoring(32.3 points) and ranked third in assists (9.1). He suffered the injuryin the fourth quarter of a double-overtime victory over the Los AngelesLakers on December 31.Harden also extended his streak of double-digit scoring games to 227,the second-longest active streak behind Cleveland’s LeBron James (834).Gordon’s three-pointer helped the Rockets finish the third quarter on a16-4 run to take an 89-70 lead into the fourth with their largestadvantage of the game.With Rockets forward Trevor Ariza sitting out the first part of atwo-game suspension for a postgame locker room incident on Monday in LosAngeles, Luc Mbah a Moute started in Ariza’s spot, scoring 14 points.Along with Ariza, guard Gerald Green was also serving the first of a two-game suspension for the altercation with the Clippers.Jimmy Butler led Minnesota with 23 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns added22 points and 16 rebounds and five blocks. Andrew Wiggins finished with16 points.Elsewhere, Isaiah Thomas scored 21 points and hit the go-ahead freethrows with 11 seconds remaining as the Cleveland Cavaliers blew a23-point lead and held off the Orlando Magic for a 104-103 win Thursdaynight at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.Thomas shot 6 of 15 but also made six of seven free throws. His biggestpoints occurred after Orlando briefly took its first lead in the finalminute.Thomas gave the Cavaliers a seemingly safe 98-91 lead by hitting a3-pointer with 5:31 remaining, but Orlando stormed back and took a103-102 lead with 31 seconds left after Shelvin Mack rebounded a missed3-pointer by Aaron Gordon and converted a short jumper in the lane.On the next possession, Kevin Love missed a contested dunk but Thomasgrabbed the rebound with 15 seconds left and was fouled by Mack fourseconds left. After Thomas restored Cleveland’s lead, Elfrid Paytonmissed a layup. Following a replay review, the game ended with a jumpball at center court with two-tenths of a second remaining.LeBron James scored 16 points as the Cavaliers carried a 67-47 lead intohalftime and held a 23-point lead early in the third. He is 25 pointsaway from becoming the seventh player in NBA history to reach 30,000career points.Love added 12 while Dwyane Wade contributed 11 as the Cavaliers won forthe fourth time in 13 games despite committing 19 turnovers.Payton finished with 19 points and eight assists for Orlando, which haslost 28 of its last 33 games. Evan Fournier and Gordon added 17 apieceas the Magic outscored Cleveland 56-37 in the second half but alsomissed 17 of 22 3-pointers.With about a minute left in the third, Jonathon Simmons tracked down aloose ball near the 3-point line and coasted in for a dunk, cutting thelead to 80-78. After Wade made an errant pass into the seats, Simmonstied the game at 80 by hitting two free throws with 49.2 seconds left.Cleveland took an 84-80 lead into the fourth following hoops by DerrickRose and Jeff Green on its last two possessions of the third beforenearly losing down the stretch.