In the NBA, Houston throttled Boston 109-85 as Terrence Jones scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds. James Harden chipped in 15 points, five rebounds and five assists to the Rockets' third straight win.
Elsewhere, Detroit had dropped seven straight to New York until Rodney Stuckey scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half of the Pistons' 92-86 victory over the Knicks. Josh Smith added 19 points for the Pistons, who opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 15-point lead.
It was Washington over Minnesota 104-100. Miami defeated Atlanta 104-88 and Sacramento topped Phoenix 107-104.
In college basketball, second-ranked Kansas beat Iona 86-66. No. 3 Louisville passed Hartford 87-48. No. 4 Kentucky won against Texas-Arlington 105-76. Fifth-ranked Arizona edged Rhode Island 87-59. It was No. 6 Duke over East Carolina 83-74. No. 7 Oklahoma St. outscored No. 11 Memphis 101-80. Twelfth-ranked Wisconsin bested North Dakota 103-85 and Utah Valley fell to No. 17 Oregon 69-54.
In the NHL, Toronto beat the NY Islanders 5-2. St. Louis took Buffalo 4-1. Boston defeated the NY Rangers 2-1. Montreal beat Minnesota 6-2. Nashville blanked Detroit 2-0. Colorado took Chicago 5-1. Edmonton shut out Columbus 7-0. Florida topped Vancouver 3-2 in a shootout and it was Los Angeles over Tampa Bay 5-2.
In soccer news, the United States ended a record-setting year with a 1-0 loss to Austria. The U.S. finished the year with 16 victories and qualified for its seventh straight World Cup.
In other soccer news, France, Portugal and Croatia earned berths in next year's World Cup, as did Greece, Ghana and Algeria.
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