Preview: Bulls at Rockets

[February 04, 2015]   Houston has managed to get by without star center Dwight Howard, out another month with a knee injury. It hopes to not go down the same road with James Harden, who is expected to return from a bruised knee in time for Wednesday's home game against Chicago. Harden was able to come back after leaving the floor with the knee injury in the first half of Saturday's 114-101 loss at Detroit - which dropped the Rockets to 11-5 without Howard in the lineup - and finished with 26 points and nine assists.

Only one player in the Western Conference had played more minutes this season than Harden entering Tuesday's action, and the league's leading scorer has been electric against Eastern Conference foes, averaging 28.5 points while shooting 46.2 percent from 3-point range. Harden was actually limited to 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting in a 114-105 loss at Chicago just over a month ago, but the Bulls have since slumped in a big way. After improving to 25-10 with that victory, Chicago has gone 5-9, the latest a 99-93 setback at Phoenix on Friday that dropped Tom Thibodeau's team to 1-2 on its six-game road trip.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN, CSN Chicago, ROOT Sports Southwest (Houston)
 

ABOUT THE BULLS (30-19): Chicago will take full advantage of four days off between games after it admitted to a degree of fatigue in the loss to Phoenix, which came one night after a double-overtime loss at the Los Angeles Lakers, three nights after an overtime win in Golden State and at the tail end of a stretch of six games in nine days. The tired legs were evident in a poor showing from long range, as the Bulls made just 4-of-18 3-pointers against Phoenix and are shooting 26 percent from long range over their current 1-3 stretch. Star guard Derrick Rose, who has had shooting woes all season, has gone a woeful 5-of-31 from beyond the arc in that span.

ABOUT THE ROCKETS (33-15): Whether Harden plays or not, Houston will likely look to keep forward Donatas Motiejunas on a roll as he continues to be more of a factor with Howard sidelined. Motiejunas has scored at least 20 points in consecutive games for the first time in his three-year career, shooting 21-of-29 in the process. In the 16 games that Howard has missed this season, Motiejunas is averaging 15.3 points, nearly four more than his season average.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Bulls C Pau Gasol has recorded nine consecutive double-doubles.

2. Chicago started Tuesday tied for third in the NBA in foul shooting (78.2 percent), while Houston was 28th (71.9).

3. Bulls G Aaron Brooks is averaging 15.8 points in 22.3 minutes over his last four games.

PREDICTION: Rockets 102, Bulls 96

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