Preview: Bulls at Rockets

[March 31, 2016]  The Chicago Bulls kept their diminishing Eastern Conference playoff hopes alive with a tight victory on Tuesday but are still on the outside looking in. The Houston Rockets, who host the Bulls on Thursday, can relate to that plight as they struggle to hang with the pack in the battle for eighth place in the West.

All-Star guard Jimmy Butler buried a jumper with 3.7 seconds left on Tuesday to lift the Bulls to a 98-96 win at the Indiana Pacers, snapping a four-game slide that had dropped the team under .500 and out of the top eight in the East. Chicago sits two games behind the eighth-place Pacers with eight games left and 2 1/2 south of the No. 7 Detroit Pistons, who visit the Bulls on Saturday. The Rockets overcame a 19-point halftime deficit and dominated the fourth quarter en route to a 106-100 win at Cleveland on Tuesday and will head into play on Wednesday a half-game in front of the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 8 spot in the West. Houston will play five of its final seven games at home, where it owns a 20-16 record.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, TNT

ABOUT THE BULLS (37-37): Butler played the hero but it was Nikola Mirotic doing the heavy lifting to keep Chicago in Tuesday’s game. The 25-year-old forward saw his minutes increase when starter Taj Gibson left with a rib contusion and responded by going 7-of-13 from 3-point range en route to a team-high 28 points and 10 rebounds after totaling 17 points in the previous three contests. “I felt great,” Mirotic told reporters. “Coach (Fred Hoiberg) found me some open shots and I was able to hit them, but it’s about the defense. Now we have to carry this effort over to Houston."

ABOUT THE ROCKETS (37-38): Houston trailed by as many as 20 points in Tuesday’s win and would like to avoid falling into similar holes moving forward. “Desperation, that’s got to be the feeling,” interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters. “It’s not panic but it’s desperate. I don’t know how many times that we’ve been down double figures and got down to come back in games. That’s who we’ve been. Again, the desperation needs to start at the tip.” The Rockets end the season with four straight against teams out of the playoff race but first have to get through Chicago, Oklahoma City and Dallas.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Bulls PG Derrick Rose (elbow) is 16-of-54 from the field in the last three games.

2. Rockets C Dwight Howard only recorded three field goal attempts on Tuesday and has taken eight or fewer shots in nine straight games.

3. Mirotic was held to seven points but C Pau Gasol delivered 28 points and 17 rebounds in a 108-100 home win over Houston on Mar. 5.

PREDICTION: Rockets 99, Bulls 94

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