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HOUSTON -- James Harden faced the throng of reporters waiting at his locker and exhaled heavily after the Houston Rockets slipped by the New York Knicks on Friday night to end a two-game skid. "Its a huge sigh of relief," Harden said. "We found a way. It wasnt pretty. It wasnt the prettiest win, but at the end of the night a win is all that matters." Harden scored 37 points and Aaron Brooks made a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left to lift the Rockets to a 102-100 victory. The Knicks had a chance to tie it at the end, but Iman Shumpert missed a shot before Andrea Bargnani grabbed a rebound and dished it to Beno Udrih, whose running jump shot rolled in and out of the basket at the buzzer. Several Knicks put their hands on their heads in disbelief as they watched the ball spin out. Udrih and J.R. Smith both missed 3-pointers for the Knicks with under a minute remaining. Brooks grabbed the rebound on the second one and was fouled by Udrih to set up the game-winning free throws. Smith admitted after the game that he made a mistake in taking his shot, which came with 19.9 seconds remaining. "Honestly I thought we were down two when I shot the ball," Smith said. "I started hearing Tyson (Chandler) say: "No, no, no dont take the shot." But at that point it was already released ... it was just bad basketball IQ by me." Carmelo Anthony couldnt believe they had another play where they should have held the ball instead of taking an ill-advised shot. In a game last month against Milwaukee, Bargnani jacked up a 3-point attempt with 11.9 seconds left and New York up by two points in overtime. The Bucks made a shot on the other end to force a second overtime, but the Knicks were able to rebound for a double-overtime win in that one. "Yeah, yeah, it was kind of like deja vu," Anthony said when asked if that play reminded him of Smiths shot. New York coach Mike Woodson said Smiths miss was just one of many opportunities they didnt take advantage of Friday night. "We had our shots and I think we compounded it too by fouling instead of making them go through our defence," he said. Shumpert, who scored a career-high 27 Thursday night, led the Knicks with 26 and Anthony added 25. Anthony returned on Thursday night after missing three games with a sprained left ankle and tweaked it late in that win. He was still struggling with it Friday night, and winced almost every time he landed after jumping in the second half. "I think it was just the back-to-back and not giving it a chance to rest," Anthony said. "It was just aching at times, at moments throughout the game." Shumpert, who was 6 for 6 on 3s, hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two points before Chandler hit two free throws to tie it at 100 with 1:02 left. Chandler finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Houston used a big run to start the fourth quarter and erase an eight-point deficit. The teams exchanged leads several times after that, but neither team led by more than a basket in the quarter before Harden scored five straight points to make it 100-95 with 2:23 remaining. Chandler Parsons added 17 points and 11 rebounds for Houston, Dwight Howard had 15 points and Jeremy Lin scored 14 against his former team. The Rockets opened the final period with a 10-1 run to take an 83-82 lead with about nine minutes remaining. Harden scored 11 points, powered by three 3-pointers, in the opening minutes of the second half to stretch Houstons lead to 61-56 with about eight minutes left in the third quarter. Anthony, who scored 45 points against Houston earlier this season, responded after that by making the first four points of an 8-0 run by New York to put the Knicks up 64-61. The game was tied at 66-all when New York scored seven straight to regain the lead 73-66. New York led 81-73 entering the fourth quarter thanks in part to 13 points by Shumpert in the third. The Knicks led by one with about 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the second quarter when Houston used a 10-2 run to take a 39-32 lead. Chandler received a technical foul in that span when he got tangled up with Howard and swung an elbow. Lin then made a nifty reverse layup and the ensuing free throw and Houston capped the run with an alley-oop dunk from Harden to Terrence Jones. New York got going after that, using an 11-2 spurt, with consecutive 3-pointers from Anthony, to regain a 43-41 lead. Parsons made a pair of free throws with seconds left in the second quarter to lead 48-47 at halftime. NOTES: Singer Paul Simon, who will perform with Sting at the Toyota Center in February, attended the game. ... Knicks F Kenyon Martin has a sore left ankle and did not dress for the game. ... Houston C Omer Asik missed his 16th straight game right thigh and knee injuries. New Asics Shoes Australia . - Roger Federer squandered a big lead and lost to No. Asics Wholesale Australia . The freestyle skier from Calgary finished sixth in the qualification round with a total of 82.00 points. Groenewoud won a silver medal at the X Games last month, just over five weeks after undergoing double knee surgery. http://www.asicsaustraliawholesale.com/ .com) - The Los Angeles Kings werent playing their best hockey before the league went on break during the Winter Olympics. Asics Shoes Australia Cheap . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak. Cheap Asics Shoes Online Australia . Richard Jefferson scored 17 points and Diante Garrett had a career-high 15 points as the Jazz had seven players with 10 points or more in Utahs largest margin of victory this season.RALEIGH, N.C. – You could hear a pin drop in the visitors dressing room at PNC Arena after yet another blowout defeat. "I think the talking has to stop," said Jay McClement with evident frustration. "Weve talked all year all about all these things and were just not getting the job done. Nothing seems to be changing. Were just still very inconsistent with our efforts. Somethings got to change. I think weve done so much talking, we just need a little more action." The Maple Leafs lost their third straight and 20th in the past 31 games on Thursday night, blown out 6-1 by the surging Hurricanes. Months of brewing trouble saw the club finally knocked out of a playoff position for the first time all season, now 10th in the Eastern Conference. "I think were searching for answers and thats the hard part," Mason Raymond said. "Its a cliché, but were the only ones that are going to get ourselves out of this mess." It was more of the same from a wildly inconsistent, unpredictable group that has just five wins in regulation since the start of November and not one during that span on the road. The Leafs have been outscored 18-5 during this most recent three-game slide, an "exclamation point" in the words of Randy Carlyle, for the ills of a troubled hockey club. Just when it appears, however, that a low point has been reached does another disastrous performance occur, this one to a Carolina squad that has now won five straight. "We stood around for most of the hockey game tonight," said a noticeably deflated and dejected Carlyle afterward. "For whatever reason that nobody seems to have an answer to right now is were doing things standing still. Were watching teams skate and were not engaged in the hockey game to a level that is required to give yourself a chance for success." Carlyle urged his group to play with more tenacity and bite in recent days, something more in wake of a season veering dangerously off course. But aside from a late and rather meaningless push, he didnt get it. The urgency and intensity remained mysteriously absent as domino after domino toppled over on the ice in Raleigh. "Theres no excuse why we dont compete every night," said McClement. "Thats something that has to be there every night. Youre not going to win every night, but the effort and the compete has to be there every night. Theres no excuse for that." It was yet another mess in a season thats had too many to count already. An identity-less team to this point, the Leafs are searching for answers on how to right the wrongs of a season thats teetering closer and closer to the edge of something perilous. The problem is, these troubles have been brewing for the better part of the season with little to no change in performance. These are tough times in Toronto with no readily apparent end in sight. "It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that things arent going anywhere near what our expectations are, thats for sure," said Carlyle. Five Points 1. Pushing the Message Preaching for improvement all year, but especially in recent days, Carlyle wouldnt cast the full weight of whats taken place onto the shoulders of his players alone, but what has to be distressing for the head coach and his staff is how few results the message has yielded. Nothing, it seems, has been able to lift the Leafs from a year-long funk. "Theyre not an island out there," he said before Thursdays game. "We dont put our players on an island. We think its very improper to put our players in a situation to say that we dont support them. We support our players to the utmost. And we look back to the players because theyre the ones that are out there doing it. Theyre the ones that are out there sacrificing. Theyre the ones that are out there putting on the performance." Carlyle said that his staffs role is one of guidance. "Were just in a position to try and guide them as a coaching staff. Theres different ways to guide. Weve tried numerous ways to stimulate our group to play a much more competitive brand of hockey. Well continually push for more of that." 2. Reimers First Start in 19 Days Questioned before the game on how he managed to stay sharp with a long layoff – 19 days – between starts, James Reimer, as is the norm, found the bright side. "Its just good preparation for the Olympic break, I guess," he said with a grin. Reimer had no chance yet again in his first start since Dec. 21, on the hook for all six goals in the 6-1 defeat. "Our goaltenders are strung out and left hanging high and dry if you look where the quality of the scoring chances are coming from, theyre coming from that critical area," said Carlyle. "You cant continually give those chances up." Leaf goaltenders were frequently heroic in the opening hhalf of the season, despite inflated shot totals, but have understandably buckled under helpless conditions recently.ddddddddddddReimer and Jonathan Bernier own a .846 save percentage during this most recent three-game slide. "You just want to hang in there and keep it as close as you can so that you can give the boys a chance," said Reimer, who dropped to 4-2-1 lifetime against Carolina. 3. Gardiner Scratched For the second time this season, Jake Gardiner landed as a healthy scratch. Carl Gunnarsson returned from an elbow injury, while Mark Fraser was inserted into the lineup for just the second time in 12 games as Carlyle shook up the defence. "We felt that Jake has struggled in the last couple games," said Carlyle, "his puck movement and decisions with the puck and we felt had a better option in the other two guys at this point with the way our mix was put together." 4. Phaneufs Production Recently signed to a seven-year extension, Dion Phaneufs offensive production has dipped this season, his fifth with the Leafs. Phaneuf totaled a hearty nine goals and 28 points in 48 games in 2013 – a pro-rated 15 goals and 47 points – adding 12 goals and 44 points in 2011-12. But just beyond the midway point this year and the 28-year-old has just four goals and 17 points, an eight-goal and 33-point pace. "I feel good about my game and the way that Ive played," he told the Leaf Report generally on Thursday morning, "But the bottom line is individual seasons dont matter. It matters about team success and weve got to be better as a team and we know that." One area of admitted focus and needed improvement for Phaneuf is the number of pucks directed to the net. He leads the team with 75 shots, but is on pace for a career-low in shots per game, way down from the numbers he accumulated previously. Season Shots Per Game 13-14 1.76 13 1.83 11-12 2.46 10-11 2.88 09-10 2.78 08-09 3.46 07-08 3.21 06-07 2.91 05-06 2.95 5. Ashton, Holland Trade Places The Leafs deemed Wednesday that Peter Hollands progression wasnt being served by remaining on the fourth line, where hes been slotted since the return of Tyler Bozak. They opted to send the 22-year-old to the Marlies, recalling Carter Ashton, who has strung together 15 points in 14 AHL games this season. "He wasnt going to play on the top two lines," Carlyle said of Holland, who had eight points during a 10-game stretch with Bozak out. "We felt it was probably hurting his development curve to leave him as a fourth-line centre." The challenge for the 22-year-old Ashton meanwhile is translating the success hes attained in the minors into something substantial in the NHL. Ashton has just one assist in 33 games with the Leafs, offering only fleeting glimpses of readiness in a bottom-six role. "A young player that has got size and skill and the ability to skate and protect the puck at the American League level doesnt always translate to that in the NHL," said Carlyle. "Its much more difficult, obviously. Youve got a lot less time and space and [youre] playing against bigger and stronger men. We think that hes continually showed some progress." A natural winger, Ashton slotted into the fourth line centre spot against the Hurricanes and barely played, totaling just under four minutes. Stats-Pack 0 – Regulation road victories since Oct. 30. 19 – Days between starts for James Reimer. 3 – Consecutive games with a goal for Joffrey Lupul, who scored his 14th this season in defeat. 18 – Goals allowed by the Leafs in the past three games. Special Teams Capsule PP: 0-2Season: 21.4% (5th) PK: 3-5Season: 76.9% (27th) Quote of the Night Up Next The Leafs visit the Capitals in Washington D.C. Friday for the second end of a back-to-back set. ' ' '