HOUSTON -- It took James Harden scoring 42 points on 33 shots in 44 minutes of playing time, but intangibles played an even bigger role in the Houston Rockets' 121-117 overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls on Friday night.

Houston built a comfortable first-half lead only to score just 19 points in the third quarter and watch the soap-opera filled Bulls surge into the lead.

The scene unfolding at the Toyota Center looked eerily similar to what occurred Thursday night, when Houston lost a 20-point fourth-quarter lead to Atlanta on its way to a disheartening defeat.

Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni was confident his team wouldn't allow that again, but Houston had to dig deep to rally to the victory. Harden credited the defensive effort.

"Offensively we went on a little drought and we just relied on our defense," Harden said. "Our defense won us that game and we got stops and we got some shots to fall. But that's what it's going to be. We can't make 50 3s every night like we want to, but we have to find other ways to win and tonight was one of those wins."

In the game's closing moments, two veterans with championship rings, Trevor Ariza and Dwyane Wade, put on a little show.

"It's always fun going up against a future Hall of Fame player," Ariza said. "A player that can score in a number of different ways. You just got to have fun in the moment."

With the score tied at 108 after Harden nailed a step-back jumper with 27.7 seconds left in regulation, Wade had the ball with Ariza on him. Ariza poked the ball away at midcourt and in a mad scramble, the Bulls retrieved it. But they were called for a shot-clock violation with 3.3 seconds left.

"We needed a play," Ariza said. "We needed to get to overtime, we needed a stop and as a team, we were trying to hang our hat on that defensive end as well as the offensive end."

Check out the team site for more game coverage

Check out the team site for more game coverage

Houston couldn't win it in regulation as Harden hit the side of the rim at the buzzer.

In overtime, Michael Carter-Williams tied the score at 115, but then those intangibles came up again. With Carter-Williams guarding Harden, the two fell down and the referees called a foul on the Bulls guard with 2:02 left. It was an odd play that ended with Harden on top of Carter-Williams.

"I was in front of him, fronting him and he, I just don't know," Carter-Williams said. "He jumped on my back and they called a foul on me. It was a tough call."

Carter-Williams fouled out on the play and Harden made one of two free throws for a one-point lead.

Wade hit a jumper to give the Bulls a 117-116 edge but after Eric Gordon missed a jumper, Gordon made a key defensive play, knocking the ball out of bounds from Wade's hands with 1.1 seconds left on the shot clock and 52.5 seconds left in overtime.

Wade inbounded the ball and it was tipped by Ariza's hand, but the ball also kicked off his foot. The referees reset the shot clock causing some displeasure from the Rockets.

It wouldn't matter because Houston got a defensive stand as Taj Gibson was called for traveling with 46.8 seconds to go. And then came the dagger.

After a timeout, Harden came off a screen and hit a jumper as Paul Zipser fell into him, drawing a foul with 36.1 seconds left. Harden made the free throw to give the Rockets a two-point lead that sealed the game.

A quick look at the box score tells you Ryan Anderson did not score a point and missed all seven of his shots. Yet, Anderson was plus-8. Of the 48 rebounds snagged by the Rockets, Patrick Beverley had seven and Ariza grabbed six. Gordon was plus-16 and played good defense and D'Antoni praised Montrezl Harrell, who had five boards in 21 minutes off the bench. Corey Brewer scored nine points and was plus-10.

"Trevor made a lot of big plays towards the end of the game that really got us over the hump to win this game," Gordon said. "We made the right plays necessary to win this game."

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.