Jeremy Lin, James Harden and Houston Rockets Fall Short to Lebron James's 4th Quarter Heroics as Miami Heat Win Thriller, 113-110

For nearly four quarters, the Houston Rockets (3-4) were keeping pace with, and at times, were edging past the world champion Miami Heat.

But even with nearly all of their starters in double figures and the turnovers drastically reduced, they couldn't figure out how to close the deal late in the game and the Heat (6-2) ended up pulling out a come-from-behind 113-110 win in their only visit to Houston scheduled this season.

Things were looking dire for the Rockets early in the game when Miami flexed its scoring muscles in the first quarter, pulling ahead, 25-19, at one point leading by as much as 17 points. But Houston capitalized on key mistakes made by Miami's defense, and the Rockets' offense ended up posting 33 points in both the second and third quarters, with reserve forward Carlos Delfino's three-pointer with 5:03 left in the third giving Houston its first lead, 70-69.

But after taking an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Heat's LeBron James turned it up, scoring 16 of his game-leading 38 points in the fourth, including a clutch basket with 18.7 seconds left to put the Heat up for keeps.

"LeBron was obviously very, very good going down the stretch,'' Miami coach Erick Spoelstra told the Houston Chronicle.

Chandler Parsons led the Rockets with 25 points, including five three-pointers, while James Harden put up 22 points and five assists, but had an off-night from the field with 6-of-17 shooting, missing the final shot of the game from beyond the arc that would have tied the game at 113.

"We made some good plays toward the end of the game," Harden said, "but some of the shots didn't fall."

Meanwhile, Jeremy Lin scored only 9 points on 3-of-8 shooting, but, as the Houston Chronicle notes, he had several big moments in the game, including a three-pointer in the third quarter to jump start the Rockets. However, he air-balled on a big three-point shot with the Rockets down by one with 11 seconds to go in the final quarter.

"Obviously, it's my responsibility to hit that shot," Lin told ESPN via the Associated Press afterwards. "It was a good shot for me, a quality shot, and it didn't go in for me, unfortunately, in a crucial play of the game."