HOUSTON -- Houston coach Kevin McHale worried that his team might come out flat Monday night against the struggling Utah Jazz after dropping a close game to the Heat in Miami a day before. His fears were completely unwarranted. Terrence Jones scored 30 points and the Rockets ended a three-game skid with their most lopsided victory of the season, a 124-86 win over the Jazz. "Theres got to be an emphasis on how we play and improving," McHale said. "Its really important that we keep improving and getting better." Dwight Howard was out with an ankle strain, leaving the Rockets without him for the first time this season. But they still had no problem handling the Jazz, who have lost five in a row and have one of the worst records in the Western Conference. Houston was up by 19 at halftime and 13 points by Jones in the third quarter helped push the lead to 92-69 entering the fourth. "We just wanted to be aggressive," Jones said. "Coming off three tough ones we wanted to come out and have a lot of energy and just get back to playing ... the way we had been playing." The big lead allowed an overworked James Harden, who had played more than 43 minutes in three of the previous four games, to rest a bit as he watched the fourth quarter from the bench. Harden finished with 15 points. Houston used a 15-0 run starting midway through the fourth quarter with all their starters on the bench except for Jones to push the already lopsided game to a 40-point advantage. Jordan Hamilton had seven points for Houston during the run. Derrick Favours had 15 points for the Jazz a night after scoring a career-high 28. "This is a lesson for the young guys," Jazz coach Ty Corbin said. "They have to learn to get ready every night. Tonight, we just couldnt get it going. It was like we were running in mud and couldnt get ourselves out of it." It was unclear when Howard was injured, but the team announced the mild strain to his left ankle about 40 minutes before tipoff. He had been the only Rockets player to start every game this season before missing Mondays game. Omer Asik started in his place and finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Houston got back on track after an 0-3 road trip for its first three-game losing streak of the season. The losses came at Oklahoma City, Chicago and Miami and followed a great stretch in which the Rockets won five straight over some of the Eastern Conferences best teams. "Weve been playing well and were confident in each and how weve been playing," Harden said. "The last three games have been a slip up, but overall I think were in a good place." Patrick Beverley scored 19 and Jeremy Lin had 17 for the Rockets, who are second to San Antonio in the Southwest Division. Jones opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer and scored the first nine points of the second half for Houston to extend the lead to 69-47. Asik had a dunk for the Rockets before Jones added four more points to leave Houston up 75-51. Favours made two free throws for the Jazz midway through the quarter before Beverley scored four points for the Rockets to stretch the lead to 26 points. Utah finally found some offence after, scoring eight straight points with the first six from Alec Burks to cut the lead to 79-61. The Jazz cut the lead to seven on a 3-pointer by Richard Jefferson with about 9 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Houston used a 13-2 spurt to stretch the lead to 47-29 about 3 1/2 minutes later. Lin and Beverley scored all of Houstons points in that span with Beverley scoring eight and Lin adding the rest. Utah went almost four minutes without scoring before a layup by Favours with four minutes left in the second quarter. Houston led 60-41 at halftime. The Rockets were up by two points with three minutes left in the first quarter before using an 8-2 run to close out the period and extend their lead to 28-20. NOTES: Houston F Omri Casspi missed the game with the flu. ... The Jazz won 109-103 in the last meeting with Houston this season. ... Houstons Francisco Garcia and Utahs John Lucas got into a scuffle as the game ended and pushed each other before they were separated and both led off the court. ... The Rockets shot 58.2 per cent and had 30 fast-break points, which were both season highs. Kyle Walker Jersey . After making his All-Star debut in Fridays Rising Stars Challenge, the Raptors sophomore centre wont be sticking around for the duration of the weekends festivities, thinking about the big picture instead. Danny Welbeck Jersey .James scored 29 points, including 16 in the first quarter, and the Cleveland Cavaliers broke a four-game losing streak with a 106-74 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday night. http://www.englandsoccerpro.com/John-Stones-England-Jersey/ . -- The Guelph Storm are moving on to the Western Conference final after defeating the London Knights 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League playoff action. Raheem Sterling England Jersey . Maricopa County spokeswoman Cari Gerchick says thats the finding from an autopsy conducted Thursday by the county Medical Examiners Office. Marcus Rashford Jersey . 11 Ana Ivanovic and American Sloane Stephens, and former world No.DUBLIN, Ohio -- Jack Nicklaus welcomes the PGA Tour to his home course this week at Muirfield Village for the Memorial Tournament. Last year, Matt Kuchar closed with a 4-under 68 to beat Kevin Chappell by two strokes for his second win of the 2013 season and sixth of his career. Kuchar is having another strong season with nine top-10 finishes, including his seventh tour win at the Heritage. He finished second in Houston and shared fifth at the Masters. New world No. 1 Adam Scott will join Kuchar at Muirfield this week. Scott took over the top spot in the world rankings last Monday, and rallied to win at Colonial over the weekend. They are ttwo of seven players ranked in the top 25 in the world who are playing this week.dddddddddddd Jason Day, who has been out since the Masters with a thumb injury, is hoping to return to action this week. Nicklaus invited Michael Kim, Justin Thomas and Justin Lower, who are all former winners of the Jack Nicklaus Award as top collegiate golfer. Golf Channel will have full television coverage the first two days and early action on the weekend before handing off to CBS. The PGA Tour heads to Memphis next week for the St. Jude Classic, where Harris English held off Phil Mickelson and Scott Stallings by two strokes last year. ' ' '