Rockets blast Grizzlies, 121-96

Updated -- 11:57 p.m., December 22

Posted: December 8, 2012 -- 11:31 p.m. CST.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) – The Houston Rockets like to play with "pace and space". The Memphis Grizzlies like to get teams in the half-court and use their size to pound teams into submission. The Rockets' speed doomed the Grizzlies Saturday night as the Rockets picked up a solid, solid 121-96 win over the Grizzlies in front of an announced sellout (no way, not even close) crowd of 18,029 fans.

The Rockets (14-12) outscored the Grizzlies (18-7) 33 to 3 in fast break points. Repeat: 33 to 3.

"That was the whole key," said James Harden. "We know how physical they are. They like to pound the ball  in the paint and get easy layups. It was our job to push the tempo, get stops and get in transition and  I think we did that early on."

Harden scored a game-high 31 points and dished out eight assists while Jeremy Lin scored 15 points and dished out a game-high 15 points.

Seven Rockets scored in double-digits: Marcus Morris scored 16; Omer Asik scored 14 (and grabbed 12 rebounds); Carlos Delfino added 11; and big man Greg Smith and Toney Douglas each scored 10 points.

Defense was not at a premium for much of the game. The Rockets shot 53.7% from the floor; and, the Grizzlies shot 53.2%; however, the Rockets made 12 of 28 attempts from the three-point line compared to only 2 of 13 for the Grizzlies from behind the arc.

"Our guys played well. We made 12 threes," said Rockets head coach Kevin McHale after the game. "I like the pace we had. I really liked the fact that we had 32 assists."

"We did a nice job of playing before the Grizzlies got their defense set. Once they get their defense set they're tough."

McHale added, "I think that's two games in a row where we've had good spacing; and, we're not playing on top of each other which is really key for how we have to play. If we can get pace and space, it allows the guys some room to make moves."

Grizzlies center Marc Gasol said, "We tried to play their game and they are obviously better at it than us at playing at that pace and they beat us in every aspect of the game. They beat us in execution, defensively and they just beat us in everything."

Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins added, "“Well it wasn't much of a game. 121-96, they pretty much handed it to us. They’re a good offensive team. They ran and made shots. Early on when you looked at the numbers, they were pretty close. They had 44 field goals, we had 42 field goals but the 26 free throws, to our 14 was the difference in the game. We just had no juice, no energy and were not mentally tough. We just kind of packed it in early and I decided to give some other guys a look in the fourth quarter and they didn't do much better."

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