Palo Alto High grad Jeremy Lin continued his solid all-around play, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Houston Rockets from dropping an 88-79 decision to host New Orleans in NBA action Wednesday night.

Lin scored nine points with five assists, five steals and five rebounds while playing nearly 42 minutes.

On Tuesday night, Lin scored 19 points to help the Rockets record their third straight come-from-behind win, a 125-112 victory over the injury-riddled Los Angeles Lakers in Houston.

Lin made seven of 13 shots from the floor in 34:49 while adding six rebounds, five assists and four steals. He also had seven turnovers as the Rockets improved to 21-14.

Houston has won seven of its past eight home games and 10 of 12 overall.

James Harden scored 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting to go with nine assists and six rebounds to pace Houston.

The Lakers' Steve Nash (16 points) reached the 10,000 career assists milestone in the second quarter, becoming only the fifth player in NBA history to dish that many dimes.

Los Angeles (15-19) now has lost a season-worst-tying four games in a row. The Lakers played without frontcourt starters Dwight Howard (torn labrum in right shoulder) and Pau Gasol (concussion), as well as reserve big man Jordan Hill (left hip).

The Rockets relentlessly attacked the rim, exploiting the short-handed Lakers' inability to consistently clog the paint. Harden, Lin and Chandler Parsons penetrated at will in guiding the Rockets to a scorching 55.2 percent shooting effort from the field and their fourth game this season with at least 60 points in the paint.

— Palo Alto Online Sports/Rockets.com

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