Donte Greene dropped 40 points vs. the Suns in Summer League action on Monday, July 14. 2008. (NBA Photo)
In the highest scoring game of the week, Donte Greene's 40-point performance lifted the Rockets to a 100-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns at the NBA Summer League Presented by EA SPORTS in Las Vegas on Monday.
The contest wasthe first game of the 2008 NBA Summer League played inside the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV.
Supporting Greene in the win was Michael Harris' double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds and Maarty Leunen's16 points.
"I didn't know that it was a record – I was just here to get a W," said Greene on nearly breaking the Summer League scoring record. "Once I got to 36, Phoenix started keying in on me a lot more, so I started to look for my teammates to get them going. I got Aaron (Brooks) going, and Maarty (Leunen), and Mike Harris and we got the win."
Donte Greene, left, and Joey Dorsey laugh during practice with the Houston Rockets for summer league basketball Thursday, July 10, 2008, in Houston. The NBA team has reached an agreement with Greene, a Houston television station reported Monday, July 14. Greene was taken in the first round of June's NBA draft by Memphis, which then traded him to Houston on draft night as part of a three-team deal.(AP Photo)
The team effort of the Suns set the pace in the opening stanza as they got their lead up to as high as 12. Greene kept his squad close, scoring an impressive 19 of his team's 25 points in the first 10 minutes.
Hot shooting from both teams highlighted the first half as Phoenix shot 53.8 percent, 71.4 percent from behind the arc, and extended their lead to 13, while Houston shot 52.6 percent from the field.
The Rockets were the squad that came out of the break with all the momentum as they cut their deficit from 13 to five, including an and-one floater with 0.2 seconds left in the quarter by Brooks.
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2008)