JAMES HARDEN scored 14 points and Ryan Anderson had 11 to lead the Houston Rockets to a 116-104 win over the New Orleans Pelicans in a preseason game Wednesday night.

    The Rockets swept the Pelicans in two National Basketball Association preseason games in China behind Harden’s passing. After collecting 15 assists in Sunday’s game in Shanghai, Harden had 8 assists Wednesday night in 24 minutes in Beijing.

    Houston built a 17-point lead after the first quarter and never relinquished it, though the Pelicans closed to within eight points in the fourth quarter.

    The Pelicans played most of the game without star Anthony Davis, who suffered what the team called a right ankle sprain in the first quarter. Davis fell to the court holding his ankle after appearing to trip while attempting to drive to the basket against Houston’s Nene. After a time-out, he briefly returned to the game before heading to the locker room. Pelicans guard E’Twaun Moore also left the game in the first half with a right heel contusion.

    Harden greeted the crowd before the match-up with “Ni hao!” and looked at ease the rest of the game as he adjusts to running new coach Mike D’Antoni’s offense.

    Earlier, two of China’s basketball luminaries got loud ovations: retired Rockets center Yao Ming, recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Stephon Marbury, the ex-NBA player who has gone onto stardom in the Chinese Basketball Association.

    NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said before the game that the NBA would open development academies in three Chinese cities, with coaches and training staff overseeing elite travel teams. The academies are spread out over the country: the eastern cities of Jinan and Hangzhou, and the northwestern city of Urumqi. They are the beginning of a planned effort by the NBA to improve basketball training and competition in various countries.

    Since the retirement of Yao, no Chinese player has reached his level of success in the NBA. Silver said he hopes the academies will create more elite Chinese players and NBA prospects.(SD-Agencies)