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HOUSTON - James Harden wasnt concerned about overstating the importance of Houstons come-from-behind victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night. "We needed this win more than anything," he said. Harden had 33 points and 13 assists and the Rockets rallied for a 111-104 win over the Pelicans to maintain their spot in the Western Conference standings with the post-season just days away. The Rockets had lost two in a row and needed the win to stay ahead of Portland in fourth place in the West. The Rockets got a boost from the return of Dwight Howard and Patrick Beverley, who had both missed the last eight games with injuries. Beverley scored 20 points and Howard had 13. "Pat was knocking down shots and Dwight was an easy rim target, so it made things easier for me," Harden said. The Pelicans led by eight points with less than three minutes remaining when Houston used a 9-0 run, powered by two 3-pointers from Beverley to take a 105-104 lead with 1:04 left. Beverleys second 3 in that span clanged off the rim and into the air before falling back into the basket and bringing the crowd to its feet. Howard blocked a shot by Jeff Withey to give Houston the ball back after Beverleys first 3 in that run. Harden made a layup to give the Rockets their first lead since the second quarter after Beverleys 3s. Jeremy Lin extended the run to 11 straight points with his layup seconds later and stole the ball on the Pelicans next possession to secure the win. "We kind of had to pull a rabbit out of our hat tonight," coach Kevin McHale said. Luke Babbitt, who was signed by the Pelicans in February after playing 18 games in Russia this season, had a career-high 24 points as New Orleans dropped its eighth straight. Austin Rivers had a season-high 20 points with 10 rebounds and six assists, and Anthony Morrow also had 20 points. "We made a couple of mental mistakes, a couple of key turnovers and ... we had a couple of mishaps, and you combine those three things and its going to be tough to win," Rivers said. "This was a really frustrating loss." McHale hoped he wouldnt have to overexert Howard and Beverley in their first game back, but the game didnt work out that way. Howard played more than 29 minutes and Beverley more than 33. "They both said they were feeling fine and wanted to win the game and we needed that win," McHale said. New Orleans was clinging to a 3-point lead when Babbitt scored five quick points to extend the lead to 100-92 with about four minutes left. Harden was fouled as he made an off-balance layup with one hand and then made the free throw to get the Rockets within 91-87 with 7 1/2 minutes remaining. Houston trailed by 10 when Harden and Beverley hit 3-pointers sandwiched around a basket by Rivers to cut the lead to 90-84 with about eight minutes left. Beverley held up three fingers on each hand and beat his chest after he swished his 3-pointer. The Pelicans led 82-72 entering the fourth quarter. New Orleans was up by 15 points early in the third quarter when Houston used a 12-4 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Harden as the shot clock expired, to get within 65-58. A 3 by Lin, followed by a pair of free throws from Jones later in the quarter cut the Pelicans lead to 73-68. But New Orleans used a 7-2 run with the help of a 3-pointer by James Southerland to extend the lead to 80-70 with a minute left in the third quarter. Houston led by two with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter before New Orleans used a 8-2 run to take a 35-31 lead. The Rockets had regained a one-point lead soon after that when the Pelicans used a 19-6 spurt to go on top 56-44 about 2 1/2 minutes before halftime. Babbitt made three 3-pointers in that stretch and Rivers added a fourth 3. NOTES: Hall of Famer and former Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon watched from a courtside seat. ... Houston extended its single-season record for sellouts to 37 with a sold-out crowd of 18,372 on Saturday night. ... Howard had been out because of a left ankle strain and Beverley missed time because of a torn meniscus in his right knee. ... Houstons Chandler Parsons (wrist and hip) and Francisco Garcia (back) sat out with injuries. They are both listed as day to day. ... Houstons Troy Daniels had a long Saturday. He played 44 minutes and scored 30 points in a D-League playoff game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers before flying from Des Moines to Houston and collecting three points and a rebound in almost 13 minutes for the Rockets. Air Force 1 Cheap Wholesale .com) - The Miami Heat stopped a four-game losing streak last time out and thats the same length slide their opponents Wednesday night, the Denver Nuggets, will try to halt when the two teams meet at the Pepsi Center. Discount Air Force 1 . -- Terry Francona likened the atmosphere at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday to a playoff game in October. http://www.discountairforce1.com/. -- Augusta James of Bath, Ont. Air Force 1 Cheap Outlet . -- Chicago manager Darold Butler has a message for the Windy City. Air Force 1 Clearance Sale . The closer wasnt available. The road trip, a disaster to that point.Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan can sense the frustration in Leaf Land. Speaking to TSN’s The Drive with Dave Naylor, Shanahan addressed a hectic week that saw the team fire head coach Randy Carlyle. “Our fans are angry. Our fans are frustrated. We’ve not been a very good team for many, many years. So that frustration and that anger is well earned,” Shanahan said. “The players understand that the only way out of this is to go out and play better hockey and to have success.” One player that has been a lightning rod for criticism since Carlyle’s firing is winger Phil Kessel, who has been fielding questions and comments on multiple fronts. Shanahan addressed the Kessel concerns, calling the 27-year-old “one of the most dangerous, talented players in the NHL.” “I think if you talk to Phil he’s going to be the first one to admit that he’s frustrated we’re not winning. He knows that he’s not happy when he’s not scoring. He wants this team to win.” But the President would not let the perennial All-Star off the hook for his part in the team’s current 10th-place showing in the Eastern Conference. “We need more from Phil, Phil knows that,” Shanahan added. “I think that the frustrating part for Phil is that he has been such a consistent performer as far as output of goals year, after year, after year. That comes with the territory of being a star player. When your team doesn’t win, it really doesn’t matter what your individual success is. People are going to want more.” The often media-shy Kessel has received his share of questions in the wake of Carlyle’s Tuesday dismissal. The Leafs’ top goal-scorer and point-getter every season since his 2009 arrival in Toronto was asked Tuesday if he believed he was a difficult player to coach and had to withstand criticism from his previous coach, Ron Wilson. “You can’t rely on Phil. It’s just the way it is,” Wilson – who coached Kessel for parts of three seasons - told TSN Radio on Tuesday. “He comes and goes, and he gets emotional. He lets that affect his game and his relationship with other players.” Shanahan was less than appreciative of the former coach’s comments. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Ron Wilson,” he told TSN Drive. “I don’t think that those comments are necessary. I think that he probably wouldn’t have appreciated it while he was a coach and it’s not something that helps us.dddddddddddd He has a good relationship with Dave Nonis, so if he has advice or anything he wants to give, he could certainly make the call.” As for his core group, Shanahan admitted that praise and criticism come in equal measure depending on the results on the ice. “When you have success, your top players, your leaders, your core players get more credit than they deserve. When you don’t have success you will get more blame, maybe, than you deserve. They understand that this is about results and they understand that there is a lot of pressure on them to get those results.” But Shanahan would admit that there is still work to be done both on and off the ice. “They haven’t gotten the job done yet,” he said of his players, adding of his own performance: “I certainly wasn’t brought in here and I haven’t built the infrastructure of a management team that came to Toronto to simply have a good team that contends for the playoffs each and every year. Like a lot of teams in the NHL, it’s our goal to be a great team.” “I know our fans are frustrated and they’d like for this to happen overnight , but that’s just simply not the way it works here.” Shanahan addressed the Toronto media earlier on Friday, touching on several topics including the time-line for hiring a permanent replacement for Carlyle, the performance of both his players and his management team. He gave interim head coach Peter Horachek his backing for the duration of the 2014-15 season, saying: “Were going to wait until the off-season now. Ive been pleased with just the early reports from Peter,” he added. Peter will be one of the people that we will consider at the end of the year but were going to wait until the end of the year. As for how the team will respond, Shanahan told the media on Wednesday that the coaching change puts the onus back on the players to make the second half of the year a success. How theyre going to be defined is really up to them at this point,” he told reporters. “I also wanted to make it very clear to them that were watching and that were on it. Whether weve seen some good things or bad things theyre not getting by us, theyre not escaping us. Were not going to be a group that is afraid to act if we feel were going to be able to make ourselves better. ' ' '