SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Those were not the customary Sacramento cowbells ringing in Golden 1 Center on Wednesday.
There were some of those, too. Some traditions made their way downtown when the Kings moved out of the old barn by the highway to their new palace last season.
The clanging that echoed, however, was from all the 3s the Rockets were crashing off the rims.
That did not stop the Rockets from taking them. Nothing does. So when James Harden checked back in with the Rockets holding a shaky five-point lead, he fired away. Harden had made 1 of 9 3-pointers when he dropped in three straight, taking the lead to 10, just enough of a cushion for the Rockets to hold on Wednesday to beat the Kings, 105-100, to complete the sweep of their season-opening back-to-back.