Nuggets' fourth quarter rally comes up short as Denver falls to Harden, Rockets

DENVER — The Nuggets have a kryptonite and it’s the Houston Rockets.

Denver had been riding high, winners of seven of its past eight games but none of that seemed to matter Sunday versus Houston. 

The Rockets shot 50.6 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three and MVP frontrunner James Harden poured in 41 points on 11-20 shooting to go with eight rebounds and seven assists as what is statistically the best offense in league history ran Denver off its home court and won 119-114.

Tonight’s Rockets victory — which gave Houston a clean sweep of the two teams’ three-game season series — unfolded in a similar fashion to the Rockets’ two previous wins. Houston drilled three-pointer after three-pointer and routinely forced Denver into switches where Nikola Jokic was defending Harden and Chris Paul out beyond the three-point line.

The Nuggets also shot just 10-29 (34.5 percent) from three-point range — a mark that’s better than their previous performances from distance versus the Rockets this season. Denver shot a combined 13-61 (21.3 percent) in two matchups with Houston this season including a 3-28 performance from three in the Rockets 130-104 win back on Feb. 9.

A spirited 10-1 run late in the fourth quarter got Denver to within five points with 4:31 left in the game and the Nuggets found themselves within four points with 1:17 on the clock. Two Harden free-throws gave the Rockets a six-point lead which ended Denver’s comeback attempt.

The dagger was Harden’s perfectly executed 23-foot step-back jumper that nearly sent Jamal Murray to the ground and pushed the Rockets’ advantage to eight with 46.1 seconds remaining.

Denver trailed by 13 points after the first quarter but a 13-2 run early in the second that was keyed by Mason Plumlee with Harden on the bench got the Nuggets to within seven points. The Nuggets widdled the Rockets’ 14-point halftime lead to six in the third but two quick threes — the first from Trevor Ariza and the second from Harden — pushed Houston’s advantage back to double-digits where it mostly remained for the rest of the night.

For the Nuggets, Jokic finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists — ending his streak of consecutive triple-doubles at three. Will Barton scored a team-high 25 points. Murray chipped in 19 on 8-13 shooting.

Denver (33-27) hosts the Los Angeles Clippers (31-27) on