Dragic's 25 leads Rockets over Grizzlies 98-89

HOUSTON – Goran Dragic scored a season-high 25 points and Courtney Lee added 17 as the Houston Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies 98-89 on Friday night.

The victory was the Rockets' 12th straight at home against Memphis, which hasn't won in Houston since April 2006.

Houston led by six with 1:22 remaining before Marcus Camby made two baskets sandwiched around a layup by Rudy Gay to extend the lead to 97-89 about a minute later.

Dragic has been starting at point guard with Kyle Lowry out with an illness. Friday's performance extended his streak of double digit scoring games to a career-high 14 in a row.

Gay had 20 points to lead Memphis, which started a span of seven games in nine days.

Camby finished with 16 rebounds, seven points and six blocked shots in his first start since joining the Rockets on March 15. Houston moved into seventh place in the Western Conference.

Grizzlies starting center Marc Gasol returned after missing the last game with a sore right ankle and had 19 points and nine rebounds. Tony Allen and O.J. Mayo chipped in 15 points each for Memphis.

The Grizzlies got within three points with a tip-in by Hamed Haddadi with about 7 minutes remaining. Houston responded with a 6-2 run over the next three minutes to extend its lead to 88-81. Chase Budinger, who had 13 points, made his third 3-pointer of the second half less than a minute and a half later to put Houston up 91-83.

Memphis scored five straight points capped by a pair of dunks by Gay, the second of which was a reverse slam, to tie it at 57-all with about 7 minutes left in the third quarter.

Houston built its lead to six points before Memphis used a 6-0 run to tie it again, this time at 64-64. But Budinger hit two 3s in the last 2 minutes of the quarter to power a 10-5 run that left Houston up 74-69 entering the fourth quarter.

The Rockets led by 11 points after the first quarter and scored the first six points of the second to extend their lead to 36-19. Memphis then used a 10-0 run, with six points from Mayo, to whittle the lead to 36-29 about seven minutes before halftime.

Houston was up 41-33 later in the quarter before the Grizzlies used a 15-8 spurt to end the quarter and cut the lead to 49-48 at halftime.

NOTES: Gay played his 420th game for the Grizzlies on Friday, moving past Shane Battier for third on the team's list of most games played. ... Dante Cunningham was helped off the court just before halftime with a sprained right ankle and did not return for Memphis. ... Lowry has missed 12 games in a row because of a bacterial infection and Kevin Martin has been out 10 straight with a sprained right shoulder. ... The Rockets assigned forward Malcolm Thomas to D-League Rio Grande Valley on Friday. Thomas was signed to a 10-day contract by Houston on Tuesday.