WITH the Pelicans on the Rockets’ heels, a 20-point lead having been reduced to four, James Harden and Anthony Davis dueled. For eight fourth-quarter minutes, Harden scored or set up nine of the Rockets’ 11 points, giving them just enough to hold off the Pelicans, 107-101, and push their lead on the Warriors to three games in the race for the Western Conference’s top seed.

Harden led the Rockets with 32 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Davis answered with 26 points and 13 rebounds.

The Rockets, however, had to struggle until the final minute, with New Orleans guards Ian Clark and E’Twaun Moore scoring on four consecutive possessions to keep the Pels within four. Luc Mbah a Moute put in a pair of free throws with 22.9 seconds left for a six-point lead, but Jrue Holiday scored just five seconds later through a P.J. Tucker foul, going to the line with a chance to make it a one-possession game.

Holiday, however, missed his free throw and Paul made a pair, giving him 21 points and the Rockets a safe six-point lead for 21 wins in 22 games since their loss in New Orleans.

When the Rockets’ defense grabbed six minutes of control, the lead swelled to 20 and it might have seemed the regulars could spend at least some of the fourth quarter resting up for the second half of the back-to-back.

(SD-Agencies)