Harden’s 40 lifts Rockets to 1st home win over Pacers

HOUSTON — It’s more than three weeks into the season and the Houston Rockets finally got their first home win on Sunday night.

With the hole they’re in early, they’ll need plenty more to dig their way out.

James Harden scored a season-high 40 points and Chris Paul added 26 to help the Rockets to a 115-103 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night.

“It’s nice to get a win,” Paul said. “We’ve obviously been struggling … but we’ve got to keep building.”

The Rockets, who had lost the last two games of a season-long five-game road trip, dropped their first four home games. They’re 5-7 this season and in 12th place in the Western Conference.

Houston was up by 10 with about four minutes left after five quick points by the Pacers, but Harden made two free throws after that to stretch the lead. The Pacers got within 8 on a basket by Cory Joseph with about 90 seconds left, but Paul made a layup a few seconds later to put the game out of reach.

Victor Oladipo had 22 for the Pacers, who have lost three of their last four games.

“We knew they were very capable of getting hot even though they hadn’t shot the ball well early this season,” Indiana coach Nate McMillan said. “We knew they were very capable and tonight they did. It was tough matchups trying to stop those guys.”

The win comes as the Rockets deal with a disappointing start to the season and rumors and reports about Carmelo Anthony’s status and future with the team. Anthony, who is in his first year in Houston, sat out for the second straight game with an undisclosed illness on a day the New York Times had a sourced report that said he had been told he would soon be waived.

General manager Daryl Morey said before the game that the report was “inaccurate” and that singling Anthony out as the cause of Houston’s struggles was unfair.

The Rockets, who entered the game ranking near the bottom of the league with a 3-point shooting percentage of just 31.7, shot 42.6 percent from long-range and made a season-high 20 3s on Sunday night. Harden had eight and Paul added five to lead the way.



“When we’re like that we’re going to score a bunch of points and if … our defense can keep improving then we’re the team that we want to be,” coach Mike D’Antoni said.

Houston had a big lead for most of the second half and was up by 21 entering the fourth quarter after Paul and Harden had piled up 55 points combined in the first three quarters.

The Pacers opened the fourth with an 11-2 run, with the last five points from Oladipo to cut the lead to 104-92 with about 7 ½ minutes left.

But Harden, who finished with nine assists and seven rebounds, made all of Houston’s points in a 5-2 run to stretch the lead and 109-94.

The Rockets led by 22 at halftime but Indiana scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to cut the lead to 76-65. Darren Collison made two 3-pointers in that span and Oladipo added another one.

Houston finally scored its first points of the second half when P.J. Tucker made a 3-pointer with about 9 ½ minutes left in the third.

But the Rockets couldn’t get much going after that and the Pacers scored five straight points later in the period to cut the lead to 84-74 with about five minutes remaining in the third.

Harden got hot after that, making 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to power a 12-3 spurt that extended the lead 97-77 about three minutes later.

TIP-INS

Pacers: Oladipo received a technical foul in the third quarter for arguing with a referee after fouling Paul. … Bojan Bogdanovic added 20 points and had six assists. … Collison had 13 points.

Rockets: Clint Capela had 18 points and seven rebounds. He bruised his knee in a collision with Oladipo, but D’Antoni said he should be OK. … Gerald Green sat out with a sprained right ankle. … Nene, who has not played this season, remains out with a strained right calf.

THEY SAID IT

Paul on what he’s seen from Anthony in his time in Houston: “Melo’s been great here. That’s like a brother to me. I don’t know what’s being said or whatnot but Melo’s been great working hard every day.”

UP NEXT

Pacers: Host Miami on Friday night.

Rockets: Visit Denver on Tuesday night.

source: sports.inquirer.net

LOOK: A sneak peek at Obama family’s new home in Washington

Outgoing US President Barrack Obama’s tenure in the White House is coming to an end in January, and the first family will be relocating to a new 8,200-square-foot house in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood in Washington, DC.

Just a short distance from the Presidential abode, the new house is inspired by the traditional interior of the White House, according to The Huffington Post, citing the real estate broker McFadden Group.

The fancy residence features nine bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, a kitchen decked with marble countertops and sprawling gardens, much like their previous home.

Obama is originally from Chicago, Illinois, but he will reportedly stay with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha until the latter finishes high school next year.

In a separate report from the New York Post, the family also purchased a second home in Rancho Mirage, just outside Palm Springs, California.  Khristian Ibarrola


source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Brighten up your bathroom with a pretty tissue tray

You don’t need a total overhaul to give your home a fresher look. In most cases, all you have to do is to make adjustments here and there.

You can start with the little, often neglected areas like the vanity tray in your room or in the guest toilet.

Not all tissue box holders are created equal. Let’s put a little whimsy in that vanity corner—a tissue box holder shaped like a house! 








You’ll need:

Cardboard sheet or any kind of stock paper that can hold something
Cutter or scissors
Pencil for marking
Masking tape or regular tape, depending on paper used
Ruler
Acrylic paint

STEP 1:

Measure, then cut your stock paper into the following sizes:

5 pcs, 5 x 5 inches
2 pcs, 3 x 5 in
Chimney, 1.75 x 1.75 in

STEP 2 u
After you’ve measured and cut the pieces, assemble and tape them together.

source:lifestyle.inquirer.net

Foreclosure offerings in Nevada are hardly a steal, report finds

Buying a distressed home in Nevada was no bargain last year.

The average sales price of a home in some stage of foreclosure — such as having a notice of default or being bank-owned — was $126,521 in 2012, almost 6 percent higher than in 2011, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

Also, the state’s average foreclosure discount of 19 percent — the price break compared with nondistressed homes — was well below the national average of 31 percent.

About 34,900 distressed homes were sold in Nevada last year, down 36 percent from 2011. Still, they accounted for 37.78 percent of all home sales statewide last year, the third-highest rate in the country.

California was No. 1 at 38.05 percent, followed by Georgia at 37.83 percent. Nationally, distressed homes accounted for 21.4 percent of all sales.

Las Vegas Valley home buyers and brokers say there is fierce competition for all homes, distressed or otherwise. That’s because of the limited inventory and the seemingly endless appetite of cash investors, who buy cheap homes in bulk to use as rentals.

Meanwhile, the number of short sales — in which a lender agrees to sell a home for less than what’s owed on the mortgage — soared by 86 percent last year in Nevada, RealtyTrac reported. They accounted for 33 percent of all home sales statewide, and the average amount owed was $121,977.

But just because short sales are a dominant force in the housing market doesn’t mean they’ve become any faster to process. It still can take six months to a year — if not longer — to complete a deal.

Nationally, short sales rose 4 percent from 2011 and comprised 22 percent of all sales last year. The average amount owed was $81,621.

source: vegasinc.com