The Houston Rockets are really good at offense and the Phoenix Suns are really bad at defense.
The Rockets clearly received a huge boost with the return of superstar point guard Chris Paul in Phoenix Thursday night as they scored 45 points in each of the first two quarters in their 142-116 spanking of the Suns.
James Harden scored 23 of his 48 points in the 2nd quarter as the Rockets took an eye-popping 90-65 lead into the half in what has the be the highest scoring first half in quite some time in the NBA (Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals was pretty close).
They became the first team in the NBA in 26 years to score 90 points in the first half of an NBA game.
The @HoustonRockets are the first team score 90+ points in a half since..the #Rockets (1/10/1991)
Via @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/Unhb1tECgj
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) November 17, 2017
Would you look at that, the last team to accomplish the feat was when Hakeem Olajuwon and Kenny Smith led the Rockets on January 10, 1991.
For a frame of reference, the last time that happened in an NBA game, James Harden was less than two-years old and Clint Capela wasn’t even a twinkle in his father’s eye yet.
Harden would finish with 48 points for the game and the Rockets would reclaim 1st place in the western conference all by themselves with the Warriors loss in Boston. The Rockets are now 12-4 on the season.
With Harden and Paul running the show, you can expect a lot more high-scoring halves and games this season, maybe not another 90 point half though.
