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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
HOUSTON (AP) -- The Houston Rockets worked their road magic in a
home game.
|  | | Houston's Cuttino Mobley goes high to shoot over Toronto's Corliss Williamson, left, and Alvin Williams.
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Cuttino Mobley scored 26 points and Maurice Taylor had a
season-high 24 as the Rockets beat the Toronto Raptors 114-99
Tuesday night.
Walt Williams added 13 points, Steve Francis scored 12, and
Shandon Anderson and Moochie Norris each had 10 as the Rockets
improved to 5-1 against Toronto at home and snapped the Raptors'
three-game winning streak.
Houston is the only team in the league to have a better than
.500 record on the road (10-9) and less than .500 record at home
(9-10).
The Rockets understand the need to reverse that trend.
"It's important," Taylor said. "I don't think the importance
of winning at home is overrated. Everybody wants to protect their
home court and we haven't been doing that.
"But you have to look at some of the teams we've played at home
like Sacramento, Portland, the Lakers and others. But that's just
the way the schedule goes. We still want to play better than we
have."
The Rockets lost five in a row at home in December, but are 2-2
at home in January.
"It does matter," Francis said. "You want to go over .500
both on the road and at home, but especially at home. We really
have to concentrate because we've got some more good teams, like
Philadelphia, coming in here pretty soon. We just have to focus on
our game."
Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said the Rockets haven't played poorly at
home.
"I like the fact we haven't had any bad efforts at home in a
long time," he said. "Hopefully, we can get a nice little thing
going here. It's not like we've been playing bad at home.
"The amazing thing is to have a young team that's beaten up,
missing big people, but we haven't had a blowout game."
Vince Carter scored 22 points for Toronto. Charles Oakley had 16
points, Morris Peterson 12, Corliss Williamson 11 and Keon Clark
10.
"They beat us two weeks ago (at Toronto) embarrassingly and we
kind of wanted revenge," Oakley said. "But they got a good game
out of their big guys tonight and we couldn't handle it.
"Overall, they were quicker to the ball. We've been an
up-and-down team all year and tonight was no different. Houston
does what they have to do to win."
Williams hit two 3-pointers in an 11-4 run late in the first
quarter as Houston charged to a 30-19 lead with 40 seconds left in
the period.
The Rockets used an 8-2 run in the first 3:33 of the second
quarter for a 38-23 lead.
Del Curry scored five points in an 11-3 run as Toronto pulled
to 43-36 with five minutes remaining in the half. But Houston
built its lead back to nine points by halftime.
Taylor had 12 first-half points and Mobley had 10 for the
Rockets. Carter led Toronto with 10 points in the first half.
Taylor scored the first seven points of the second half to give
Houston a 61-43 lead 1:48 into the third period. Anderson scored
six points in a 2:09 span as the Rockets opened a 78-59 lead with
3:08 left in the third.
A 7-0 run early in the fourth quarter gave Houston a 98-76 lead
and the Rockets opened their largest lead of the game, 110-84, with
4:54 remaining.
Game notes
The Rockets, through 38 games, have lost 86 player games to
injury . ... Only Anderson, Matt Bullard and Norris have suited up
for every Houston game. Anderson is the only player to start every
game ... Houston is 11-2 when scoring 100 or more points ...
Toronto is 1-4 against teams from the Midwest ... The Raptors are
12-3 when scoring 100 or more points.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Toronto Clubhouse
Houston Clubhouse
Olajuwon says he would accept trade to help Rockets
RECAPS
Miami 93
Detroit 85
Houston 114
Toronto 99
Milwaukee 112
LA Clippers 91
Portland 103
Cleveland 83
FROM
ATHLETESDIRECT
Vince Carter Official Site
Mark Jackson Official Site
Lenny Wilkens Official Site
Rudy Tomjanovich Official Site
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