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Rockets beat Kings to secure playoffs

Xinhua, April 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Houston Rockets beat the visiting Sacramento Kings 116-81 at the Toyota Center on Wednesday night, and this big victory helps the Rockets successfully enter the playoffs.

The Rockets, which did have a good defence and offensive, finished the first quarter 34-18 and ended the first half 64-44, a 20-point advantage over the visiting team. And the Rockets continued their wonderful performance in the second half by concluding the game 116-81, a 35- point advantage over the Kings.

The Rockets coach J.B. Bickerstaff expressed his satisfaction over the win, saying that "We ... sat here at the beginning of the year thinking the playoffs wouldn't have been this big of a struggle, so we had expectations of making the playoffs, so now we have to get busy."

James Harden, who helped the Rockets win the game by scoring 38 points, said that "A lot of people wrote us off, thought we weren't going to make the playoffs and here we are." His teammate Dwight Howard added 14 points.

For the Kings, Ben McLemore scored 24 points and his teammate James Anderson had 13 points.

The Rockets, which will meet top-seed Golden State in the first round of the playoffs this weekend, improved to 41-41 while the Kings fell to 33-49. Endit