Vassilis Spanoulis hit a tiebreaking jumper with
1:25 left and the Houston Rockets beat the Dallas Mavericks 72-69 in
an exhibition game Tuesday night.
The teams were tied at 67 when Spanoulis made a 20-footer to give
the Rockets the lead for good. Steve Novak added a three-pointer
with 37.7 seconds left.
Ndudi Ebi made two free throws with 32.3 seconds remaining to get
Dallas within three. The Mavericks had a chance to tie it with 10.8
seconds left, but Darius Washington shot an airball on a three-point
attempt from the right wing, and time ran out before Dallas could
get off another attempt.
Houston centre Yao Ming had eight points, eight rebounds and two
blocked shots in his first game of the pre-season.
Luther Head scored 13 points and Novak finished with 12 for the
Rockets (2-1), who rallied from a 14-point third-quarter deficit.
Josh Howard had 22 points and Maurice Ager added 12 for the
Mavericks (0-4).
Dallas was without six of its top eight players, resting stars Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse.
The Mavericks got a pair of three-pointers from Howard during a
13-4 spurt to begin the second half, pushing their lead to 50-36.
But the Rockets went on a 16-4 run over the final 6:22 of the
third quarter, fuelled by Head's five points, to narrow the deficit
to 54-52 entering the final quarter.
