MANILA: James Harden scored 21 points Thursday to lead the Houston Rockets to a 116-96 win over the Indiana Pacers in the first NBA preseason game in the Philippines.
Omri Casspi added 17 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Houston, while Paul George led the Pacers with 17 points. Dwight Howard was held to nine points in his second game for the Rockets after struggling with foul trouble, and had four turnovers.
Houston coach Kevin McHale started Patrick Beverly at point guard and Terrence Jones at power forward instead of Jeremy Lin and Donatas Motiejunas, who started in the first preseason game.
“I told them I will change starting lineups every game to see what happens. They’re aware of it,” McHale said. “On this game, I saw D-Mo (Motiejunas) having a great synergy with Omri Casspi and the bench was just energized.”
For Indiana coach Frank Vogel, the Rockets just showed up more ready to play.
“It’s simple: the Rockets played better than us,” he said.
NBA Commissioner David Stern said that basketball-obsessed Philippines was an ideal host for NBA preseason games, and the league could go to other Southeast Asian countries in the future.
He said that Filipinos were “rabid fans in a wonderful way.”
“The NBA is always trying to find ways to take advantage of opportunities particularly in Southeast Asia, and the Philippines lead the way,” Stern said. “But we’re beginning to see activity around like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.”
The teams will play each other again on Sunday in Taiwan, the ancestral home of Rockets guard Lin.
Phoenix 104 Portland 98: In Portland, Oregon, Goran Dragic had 19 points and the Phoenix Suns held off a fourth-quarter rally by the Portland Trail Blazers for a 104-98 preseason victory Wednesday night.
Dragic hit 7 of 9 shots and scored 14 points in the first half for the Suns (2-0), who got 15 points from Marcus Morris.
Suns forward Channing Frye, who missed the entire 2012-13 season with a heart condition, was 5 of 6 from the field and scored 14 points in his first preseason appearance. Doctors cleared the 30-year-old days before the start of training camp.
Phoenix led by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter, but the Blazers were able to get as close as four points during the final 3 minutes.
Damian Lillard scored 19 points for Portland (0-2), while Allen Crabbe had 14.
Portland's Thomas Robinson, who had seven points and six rebounds in 13 minutes, was ejected in the second quarter for throwing an elbow.
Kobe progresses, but still weeks away from playing
Meantime, athough Kobe Bryant says he’s making steady progress in his recovery from a torn Achilles tendon, the Los Angeles Lakers’ guard is still a few weeks away from playing in a game.
Bryant is back with the Lakers after a short trip to Germany to get treatment on his right knee, another trouble area for the 35-year-old guard.
He sat on Los Angeles’ bench for an exhibition game Tuesday, and he’ll travel with the team to China later this week.
Bryant is running with his full body weight on a special treadmill, and he has done light jogging and calf exercises recently.
He says he’ll still need three weeks of conditioning to get into game shape, citing six months of eating “everything” while sidelined.