Rockets snap funk, respond with win over Hornets

NEW ORLEANS -- The Houston Rockets have been so starved for a victory in the past three weeks that Coach Kevin McHale was in no mood to waste a good crisis. The Rockets, who had lost eight of their previous nine games, jumped out to a 48-40 halftime lead over the New Orleans Hornets Friday night, but then allowed four quick New Orleans points to start the second half, cutting their lead in half. McHale called a quick timeout, and that might have been the blunt message the stumbling Rockets needed as they refocused and coasted to a 100-82 victory over the Hornets at the New Orleans Arena. "We had one possession where we tried to set the record for most dribbles in a 24-second period, and we might have had another possession where no one passed it," McHale said. "That was not a good start." But the Rockets responded. James Harden scored 10 of his game-high 30 points during a 26-11 spurt in a 5:58 stretch of the third quarter as the Rockets took their bigges...