Tuesday night featured plenty of new personnel making their on-court debuts for their new teams. In an NBA preseason game in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Houston Rockets were able to showcase their newest guard Chris Paul. CP3 and his team grabbed a 104-97 victory thanks to solid contributions from James Harden and Trevor Ariza. The newest Oklahoma City Thunder players also made their debuts. Here's the latest Rockets vs. Thunder game recap including top performers, game stats, and what's next for these two teams.

NBA game recap

The Houston Rockets opened the first quarter with a 27-25 advantage and were up 59-52 by halftime.

They outscored the home team by another 10 points in the third quarter. The Thunder staged a late comeback with a 24-14 fourth quarter to take a 104-97 win.

Leading the way for the Houston Rockets tonight was Eric Gordon off the bench. He played 24 minutes and shot 7-for-12 to finish with 21 points. Trevor Ariza was 6-for-9 and had 18 points to lead all starters while James Harden had 16 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds. The newest member of the Rockets, Chris Paul, finished with 11 points and seven assists in 24 minutes of game time.

Both Carmelo Anthony and Paul George made strong preseason debuts for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Melo led all scorers with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting to go with four boards. George had 15 points and five boards for his first game as a member of the Thunder. Isaiah Canaan and Markel Brown each came off the bench to contribute 10 points while Russell Westbrook sat out for tonight's game.

Houston ended up shooting 42.3 percent overall and 43.6 percent from downtown.

The Thunder hit their shots at a rate of 40.8 percent overall and 38.5 percent from long range. OKC had a 45-37 rebounding advantage but also had 18 of the two teams' combined 35 turnovers.

What's up next?

The Houston Rockets get a 1-0 start to their preseason with tonight's win. While it wasn't a "lights out" performance for Chris Paul, the team managed to showcase their ability to win against a talented opponent.

The Rockets will host Shanghai for their next game on Thursday beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

As far as the Oklahoma City Thunder, they begin with an 0-1 start to the preseason. Carmelo and PG13 both looked great in their first game for the Thunder, but the team was still missing one of the trio of the stars. Fans are hoping to see Russell Westrbook on the court with his new alll-stars. Next up for OKC will be a home matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday night.
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