The Wizards Beat The Rockets In OT Despite 54 Points From James Harden

The Wizards and Rockets met in the nation’s capital on Monday night in a battle of teams underachieving to start the season to different degrees.

The Rockets entered Monday a disappointing 9-9 on the season, struggling defensively as a team and being unable to find their full stride offensively due to various injuries and lineup changes to start the year. Washington, on the other hand, has been very publicly imploding as a team, and came into the game 7-12 on the season.

On Monday, the Chris Paul-less Rockets once again had to lean heavily on last year’s MVP for scoring and creation, and he delivered in the form of 54 points and 13 assists — including the game-tying lob to Clint Capela that sent the game to overtime.

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Eric Gordon chipped in 36 points, giving those two 90 points combined, but, somehow, that wasn’t enough for Houston to pull out a win in overtime. John Wall and Bradley Beal led the way for Washington with more than 30 points each as Wall led the team with 36 points and Beal added 32, including some big plays late in the fourth and overtime to pull out the win.

While Wall and Beal had big time performances, it was Washington’s bench that had the biggest difference in the game, as they outscored the Rockets second unit 45-9, with Markieff Morris leading the way with 22.

It’s a big win for Washington, as they need every win right now to climb back towards .500, and a rough loss for the Rockets to fail to capitalize on Harden dropping a fifty-burger (his second in as many games).