Houston beats Dallas 103-94 to advance to second round

James Harden scored 28 points, Terrence Jones had 10 of his 15 in the fourth quarter, and the Rockets beat the Dallas Mavericks 103-94 on Tuesday night to get out of the first round and exorcise any bad feelings that lingered from last year's opening-round loss to Portland.

Houston won the Western Conference series 4-1 to advance to face the winner of the Clippers-Spurs series in the second round.

Dwight Howard had 18 points and 19 rebounds to help the Rockets dominate inside and Josh Smith scored 20 points. The Mavericks couldn't get going from long-range, going just 5 of 26 on 3-pointers.

Monta Ellis led Dallas with 25 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 22.