HOUSTON -- The overall consensus from some Wednesday morning conversations was that basketball players from the Los Angeles area play with a Kobe Bryant aggression.

Two such players, childhood friends James Harden and DeMar DeRozan, are among the league leaders in points and are just taking over games.

“They grew up watching Kobe too much,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry joked.

In the evening, the aggression was apparent from DeRozan, who dominated the game for the Toronto Raptors in a frenzied, 21-point third quarter that eventually led to a 115-102 victory over Harden's Houston Rockets.

DeMar DeRozan was dominant during a 21-point third quarter that propelled the Raptors to victory. Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images

Neither DeRozan nor Harden could get much done against defenders in the first half, and that changed for one of them in particular in the second half.

“When you’re down [15 points] at halftime and [DeRozan] has not done anything, you know you might be in a little bit of trouble because he will do something,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “I mean, he’s that good of a player.”

The Rockets' Trevor Ariza slowed DeRozan in the first half and made it hard for him to find open looks outside or drive lanes to the basket. DeRozan scored just three points in the half, all from the line, as he misfired on all five shots from the floor.

Things quickly changed in the third quarter, though, as DeRozan made eight field goals on drives and jumpers. He scored 11 consecutive points at one point during the quarter, with six of them coming on drives. He ended the night with 24 points.

“Guys did a great job of screening for him, and he got into the DeMar mode and went to work,” his coach, Dwane Casey, said. “We’re running some of his familiar plays that we were running for him, giving him some screens and some switches that we wanted him to have, and he did a good job. He carried us in the third quarter when they made a run.”

Yes, the run.

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Houston scored nine straight points to start the second half, but its defense couldn’t contain the Raptors any longer, and the teams began trading baskets. D’Antoni said his players lacked their normal energy and “got fat and happy” being at home.

Harden usually fuels the Rockets, but he struggled. He committed a season-high 12 turnovers while being swarmed by Raptors defenders, who packed the paint when he drove the lane and double-teamed him on pick-and-rolls. Harden scored 29 points, though, with 12 coming from the line. He shot 7-of-13 from the floor and worked for every shot, as he was swamped and seldom found space.

Toronto took advantage of the turnovers it produced to score 33 points off Houston's season-high 28 giveaways.

“I’ll take this one on the chin,” Harden said. “Just careless with the basketball, silly turnovers, just not being aggressive.”

A game involving two L.A. kids, now grown men, had some flashes of how they're both taking over the league in the early stages of the season. Harden picked up 15 assists and was his typical self, as he got to the line 12 times, hit some 3s and scored on drives.

On Wednesday morning, Lowry, who scored 17 points and combined with DeRozan for 18 assists, compared the two L.A. kids.

“Both aggressive scorers,” he said. “They both have a touchy feel for the basketball. The similarities: DeMar [is] a post-up guy, and James is a 3-point shooter. Other than that, they’re both great playmakers, and both have a knack for getting to the free throw line.”

On this one night, it was DeRozan who entered the Thanksgiving holiday smiling because he took over the game when needed. It was a boost for the Raptors, who snapped a nine-game losing streak in Houston.

DeRozan said earlier that it sucks to lose that many games to one team on the road, but as he spoke, he knocked on the hardwood floor of the Toyota Center, hoping things would improve. Despite a fourth-quarter rally from the Rockets that cut a double-digit deficit to 7 with 2:18 left on a Harden 3-pointer, the Raptors grinded out the victory.

“There’s no team in this league that’s not going to come back and make a run at you,” Casey said. “I was proud of our guys to put their foot down and withstand it and come back at them because they were trying to get into us defensively. Our guys really got strong with the basketball. We had some breakdowns defensively in the third quarter, but we battled on both ends of the floor.”