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 Houston has been on both sides of blowouts in its last two games,
losing by 28 points at New Orleans on Friday before bouncing back
the following night for a 36-point trouncing of the Miami Heat. “We
felt we were embarrassed,” forward Trevor Ariza told reporters in
reference to the loss to the Pelicans. “We know that we’re a better
team than what we showed. (Saturday) we needed to try to change
things around and the best way to do that is to step it up on the
defensive end and we did that.” The Bulls are playing the fourth
contest of a five-game homestand and are hopeful leading scorer
Jimmy Butler (bereavement leave) will be back after missing
Saturday’s overtime victory over the Boston Celtics.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ROOT (Houston), CSN Chicago
 ABOUT THE ROCKETS (23-10): Center Dwight Howard emerged from a
stretch of three straight mediocre games to produce 23 points and 13
rebounds in the rout of Miami. Howard averaged 12 points and six
rebounds during the unproductive span, and Houston lost two of the
games before he was a dominant figure against the Heat. “At lot of
teams, once I get the ball down, they collapse in the paint,” Howard
told reporters of his success against Miami. “I was able to pull it
out and just re-post and get deeper position.”
ABOUT THE BULLS (24-10): Power forward Pau Gasol has been
rejuvenated by joining Chicago and he displayed it again when he had
29 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots against Boston to
raise his season averages to 18 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.4
blocks. Gasol has 17 double-doubles and has silenced skeptics
claiming that his best basketball was behind him. “I’m a competitor
and you always have to hope for the best and be positive and
optimistic,” Gasol told reporters. “I didn’t know what was going to
happen, I didn’t know how I was going to feel, how I was going to
fit in, but I knew I was going to try and do my very best to provide
everything that I got to this team and give us the best chance we
have to win a title.”
[to top of second column] |
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Houston has won four of the past five meetings.
2. Chicago SF Mike Dunleavy (ankle) could miss his second straight
game.
3. Rockets F Josh Smith scored 12 points against Miami to end a
streak of four straight single-digit outings.
PREDICTION: Rockets 103, Bulls 99
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