HOUSTON -- The Houston Rockets did little to thwart the New Orleans Pelicans' red-hot shooting before their small-ball lineup paid dividends in the fourth quarter.

Guards James Harden and Chris Paul choose that same closing stretch to kick into gear offensively, fortuitous timing for Houston.

The Rockets erased a 13-point, third-quarter deficit in their 130-123 win over the Pelicans on Monday night at Toyota Center.

Harden scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and matched his career high of 17 assists. Paul scored 16 of his 20 points over the final 13:34 while adding nine rebounds, six assists and three steals.

The Rockets (21-4) extended their winning streak to 10 games and improved to 11-0 with Paul in their lineup by outscoring the Pelicans 34-20 in the fourth period.

Houston's defense in the final frame paved the path to victory. With forward P.J. Tucker surrendering 5 inches and 25 pounds to Pelicans center DeMarcus Cousins, the Rockets' "Tuckwagon" lineup pressured New Orleans into five turnovers in the fourth. Harden recorded four of his six steals in the period as Houston finally found a solution to the Pelicans' shooting.

"P.J. is a bulldog," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He's one of the reasons why you want to coach, guys like that, and we have a lot of them. But he's just so into it and so good, and whether he's on the bench, whether he's playing, always talking about defense, positive stuff."

Houston needed Herculean efforts from center Clint Capela (a career-high 28 points on 13-for-14 shooting plus five blocks) and guard Eric Gordon (27 points on 9-of-12 shooting off the bench) to offset the short-handed Pelicans' offensive brilliance.

New Orleans forward E'Twaun Moore scored a career-high 36 points, missing only five of his 20 shots. Jrue Holiday followed his season-high 34 points on Sunday against Philadelphia with 37 points on 16-of-21 shooting.

Cousins was an interior load and a facilitator, posting 24 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. Rajon Rondo recorded his 30th career triple-double (13 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists).

Pelicans big man Anthony Davis was sidelined by a left adductor strain, an injury sustained earlier this month. Even so, New Orleans shot 57.6 percent from the floor and sank a franchise-best 18 3-pointers, on 33 attempts.

"You can see why they have the best record in the league," New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said of the Rockets. "I thought we did everything we had to do to try and put ourselves in a position to try to win it."

The Pelicans' early shooting set the tone, with Holiday and Moore combining to make 9 of 10 attempts in the first period while totaling 23 points. Cousins chipped in 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and the Pelicans drilled 7 of 9 treys while racing to a season-high, 41-point first period.

Not ones to be outshot, the Rockets opened the second quarter with a 12-0 run, with forward Trevor Ariza providing 10 points during that stretch. However, the Pelicans offered their clearest indication of what was to come when they fashioned a 13-3 response, with their torrid shooting continuing throughout the period and to the intermission.

By the break, New Orleans had missed only five of its 19 3-point attempts, with Moore just four points off his career high of 26.

"We have a lot of guys that can do a lot of things with talent," Moore said. "When we get things together on the defensive end, we're going to be hard to beat. We were just down guys, so we were just trying to play hard."

Despite all of that, the Rockets tallied 43 points in the second quarter and led 78-76 at halftime. And when the Pelicans mounted another sizzling stretch of shot-making, extending to a 101-88 lead on a Holiday fade-away with 2:49 left in the third, Paul suddenly came alive to spark Houston.

"I told him to be aggressive. He was passive throughout the entire game," Harden said of Paul. "I told him, 'Be aggressive, take your shots.' He made some big threes, got to the basket a couple times, and gave us some momentum offensively. And then defensively we got stops."

NOTES: Pelicans F Darius Miller started in place of Anthony Davis, who is day-to-day with an injury that kept him out for a third game. Miller scored 10 points. ... Rockets G James Harden matched the franchise record for assists in a half with 14 prior to the intermission. He also had 14 in the first half of the 2016-17 season opener against the Lakers. John Lucas had 14 in the second half at Milwaukee on Oct. 27, 1977. ... Pelicans F E'Twaun Moore eclipsed his previous single-game high for 3-pointers by sinking six in the first half. He didn't add to his total after halftime.