Luc lights it up late

SALT LAKE CITY - Time and again in the fourth quarter, Luc Mbah a Moute saw 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert guarding him on the perimeter.

His eyes lit up.

After all, he had a feeling this might happen and the Rockets forward took advantage.

"I just slowed down and took what the defense gave me," Mbah a Moute said. "It's always fun to make them pay for a mismatch and make shots."

Mbah a Moute scored 15 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and James Harden had 26 points and 11 rebounds to lift Houston to its 13th straight win, 96-85 over the Utah Jazz on Monday night.

Playing the second side of a back-to-back set at high altitude, nothing seemed to come easy for the Rockets but the Jazz committed 22 turnovers, many of them unforced, to ease the pressure.

Mbah a Moute saw Denver center Nikola Jokic guard him for a while on Sunday night against the Nuggets, and admitted it threw him off.

But against the Jazz, he was ready.

"I watched the tapes this morning and saw how I could exploit it if ever that kind of matchup happened again. When it presented itself, I was prepared and I took advantage," Mbah a Moute said.

The Jazz seemed determined to limit Harden and run the Rockets' top shooters off the 3-point line but Mbah a Moute exploited the open shots and lanes to the basket to keep Utah at bay.

Mbah a Moute went 7-for-7 and Chris Paul added 15 points for the streaking Rockets, who trailed by as many as 15 in the first half.

"That was a big grind-out game for us. We got here and didn't know what guys were going to be out, so it was just next man up," Paul said.

"We expect Luc to take and make those shots. We trust each other."

Coming in, it was a matchup of two of the hottest teams in the NBA. The Jazz had won 12 of 13 games but couldn't find easy buckets against Houston's scrambling defense.

Gobert scored 17 and Donovan Mitchell had 16 to lead the Jazz, who were 7-of-29 from 3-point range.

"We just weren't together," Mitchell said. "Unforced errors - I had eight turnovers out of 22. That's damn near half. Just mental mistakes."

The Rockets won all four meetings with the Jazz this season by double digits.

"This is probably our best win of the year because we were shorthanded. I didn't know how we were going to win, but we figured out a way," Houston coach Mike D'Antoni said.

'Let's just go hoop'

Paul said the Rockets play a certain style no matter who's out there on the court.

Before Houston went out for the opening tip, Paul wasn't worried about who was injured and if they might have odd rotations. "Alright, we got who we got. Let's just go hoop," he said to his teammates.

D'Antoni isn't concerned about motivating the Rockets. "Hey, you know your alpha dogs are hungry. They play. They love to play basketball. James (Harden) loves to play, so he's ready to go every night he can ... and the chemistry's really good."

Associated Press