Harden fuels Rockets

HOUSTON - The Rockets are on a roll, putting their terrible start behind them.

James Harden scored a season-high 43 points and Clint Capela added 27 on Wednesday night to help Houston withstand a late run by the Pistons and get their fifth straight victory, 126-124. The Rockets have won eight of 10 to improve to 9-7. They led by 14 with about five minutes left, but Blake Griffin made five 3-pointers that helped Detroit cut the lead to four points with about 90 seconds left.

Houston struggled to contain Griffin late after defensive stopper PJ Tucker was ejected in the third quarter after being handed two technical fouls for arguing with officials.

"With PJ getting kicked out of the game early it put more minutes on our guys," Harden said. "But we found a way to win. There's going to be games like that where you've got to figure it out."

Griffin had a turnover and a charge after his fifth 3 and Harden, who made all 19 of his free-throw attempts, drained two from the line to make it 122-116 with 19.1 seconds left.

Ish Smith added a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three points with 9.6 seconds left, but Harden made two more free throws.

Griffin was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 3.6 seconds remaining and made the first two free throws before missing the third. It was Harden at the line again after that, and he made both shots before Smith made a 3 at the buzzer.

"It was big," Chris Paul said. "Blake got hot down the stretch but for us it's just about piling up wins."

Griffin led the Pistons with 37 points and 11 rebounds, while Andre Drummond added 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons.

"At the end of the game, two turnovers down the stretch killed us," Griffin said. "It doesn't matter how many points you score... in the big moments, that's where I have to be better."