Rockets 119, Timberwolves 100

James Harden gave Houston quite the jump-start with 22 of the team's 50 points in the third quarter, as the Rockets cruised past Minnesota on Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Chris Paul scored 15 of his 25 points in the near-record third for the Rockets, who turned a 50-49 halftime edge into a 31-point advantage after the torrid 12-minute span. The only team in the history of the NBA playoffs with more points in one quarter was the Los Angeles Lakers, who scored 51 points in the fourth on March 31, 1962, in a loss to the Detroit Pistons.

Harden finished with 36 points on 12-for-26 shooting, Clint Capela added 14 points and 17 rebounds, Eric Gordon finally got going with 18 points off the bench and the Rockets easily recovered from their rough start.

Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were dominated on both ends of the floor during the decisive third and missed 14 of 21 shots over several panicked possessions.

The Timberwolves rebounded from their two defeats on the road by matching the Rockets with 15 makes from 3-point range in Game 3, a startling development considering the Rockets led the league in that category during the regular season and the Timberwolves were last.

They wisely took another tack for Game 4, attacking the basket in the first half with relentless abandon and plenty of success while Towns watched most of the first quarter from the bench after picking up his second foul less than three minutes into the game.

Derrick Rose, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds, was the catalyst off the bench with multiple muscle-his-way-in layups on both fast breaks and in the half court. Starting point guard Jeff Teague, meanwhile, had only two points on 1-for-7 shooting while fighting through an injury to his right pinky finger.

The Wolves were in front by as much a 36-29, but with as poorly as the Rockets were shooting they needed a larger lead than that. They went 21 for 44 from the field (47.7 percent) in the first half, but with all the layups and putbacks in the mix they easily could have made more.

Trevor Ariza made the first three 3-pointers tried by the Rockets, who then missed on 13 of their next 14 tries from behind the arc. Harden didn't make a basket until 5:57 remained in the second quarter, when his 10-foot floater fell in to cut Minnesota's lead to 39-37. He swished one of his signature step-back 3-pointers on the next possession, and Houston was right back in front to sow the seeds for the staggering third quarter.

Just like in Game 2, the Rockets raced out of the gate after the half. Harden scored 17 of their first 20 points. Wolves star Jimmy Butler, on the other hand, started forcing off-balance shots. Teague and Paul, the two former Wake Forest point guards, engaged in some intense trash talk. Paul baited Teague into a pushing foul for a pair of add-to-the-pile free throws.

Gordon tacked on another 3-pointer at the buzzer for the 100-69 lead.

The last time the Timberwolves were in the first round of the playoffs in 2004, their opponent was Denver and Nene was a 21-year-old starter for the Nuggets. This is his 16th season in the NBA, the second with the Rockets.

Ariza finished with 15 points for the Rockets.

Butler (19 points) and Andrew Wiggins (14 points) combined to shoot 12 for 31 from the floor for Minnesota.

Jazz 113, Thunder 96

Shutting down Utah’s offense is proving easier said than done for Oklahoma City.

For a second straight game, a late second-quarter surge by Utah carried over into the second half and it allowed the Jazz to pull away for a victory. The Jazz used a 20-3 run spanning the end of the second quarter and the start of the third to break open the game.

Utah takes a 3-1 series lead back to Oklahoma City. Game 5 in the best-of-seven playoff is Wednesday night.

Donovan Mitchell had 33 points and seven rebounds to lead the Jazz to their third straight win in the series. Joe Ingles added 20 points, hitting five 3-pointers.

Mitchell's willingness to attack the rim put the Thunder on their heels throughout the second half.

"He's done a good job of getting in there and finishing or dropping it off," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "It's an important part of what we do. He's our most dynamic offensive player."

Rudy Gobert added 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ricky Rubio chipped in 13 points, eight assists and six boards. Derrick Favors also scored 13.

Paul George had 32 points and Russell Westbrook added 23 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Thunder, who shot 39 percent from the field.

"I thought we played downhill a lot more," coach Billy Donovan said. "I thought we were at the rim a lot more. From there, we probably missed some opportunities to move the ball. I thought our ball movement was sporadic and sometimes it was very good."

The Thunder opened a 26-19 lead late in the first quarter when Carmelo Anthony capped a string of three straight Oklahoma City baskets with an alley-oop layup. They held onto the lead for much of the second quarter until Utah finally woke up on offense.

Starting with Gobert cutting to the rim for a dunk with 3:45 left in the second quarter, the Jazz scored on 11 straight possessions. Ingles fueled the surge by hitting three consecutive 3s to put Utah in front 58-52 before halftime.

"These guys are great at telling me to shoot it as much as possible within the flow of our team and our offense," Ingles said.

The surge Ingles kept going finally culminated in another dunk by Gobert that punctuated the decisive 20-3 run that gave Utah a 67-52 lead.

"The whole year, one of the things that we've wanted to do collectively is try to generate open shots," Snyder said. "You're not always going to make them, but you want to keep taking them. Eventually, you're going to make some. We hit some timely ones in the second half."

The Jazz led by as many as 21 in the third quarter. Utah went up 87-68 when Mitchell drained a jumper and then fed Ingles for a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession.

Physical play and heated emotions characterized the game. Both teams picked up two technical fouls before halftime. Jae Crowder was ejected after a technical foul with 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

"That's just what you're going to get with a playoff team," George said. "It's playoff basketball. It's going to get chippy. It's going to get physical. We're in it for the fight."

Anthony went just 5 of 18 from the field for Oklahoma City, which shot 5 of 26 from 3-point range.

Westbrook publicly promised to shut down Rubio in Game 4 after the Jazz point guard notched a triple-double in Game 3. His aggressiveness ended up with Westbrook drawing four personal fouls in the first half. In the end, Rubio shot just 4 of 12 from the field, but he finished with two fewer assists (eight) than the Thunder tallied as a team.

Following the game, Westbrook did not want to discuss how he guarded Rubio.

"It wasn't about me or him," he said. "Let's get past that. We done with that."

Mitchell set a postseason rookie scoring record for the Jazz, passing Karl Malone, who had 31 points on April 20, 1986, against the Mavericks. Mitchell is the first rookie to have a 30-point playoff game since Brandon Jennings did it in 2010. Mitchell is just the third rookie in the last 50 years to score 110-plus points in his first four playoff games, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan.

"It's definitely an honor to have a record like that," Mitchell said. "Definitely an honor. No doubt about that, but we have one more game, so I'm focused on that."