Rockets top Bulls by Eleven

Posted: February 4, 2015 -- 11:55 pm.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets used scoring bursts to defeat the Chicago Bulls 101-90 Wednesday night. James Harden led the Rockets with 27 points - including a dazzling 15 points in the second quarter.

Trailing 22-15 in the first quarter, the Rockets went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 24.

In the second quarter, Harden put Bulls' guard Jimmy Butler on skates a few times with crossover dribbles and a step-back three-point bucket during an 18-9 run to change a 34-34 tie to a 52-43 lead for the Rockets. Harden scored 13 of the 18 points in the run.

Next, in the third period, the Rockets increased a nine-point halftime lead to 16 (69-53) with a 12-5 burst. With 4:29 left in the third quarter, the Rockets led 71-56; however, the Bulls used a 14-4 run of their own to trim the Rockets' lead to 75-70 after three quarters.

"I thought our pace slowed down big time in the second half of the third quarter," Kevin McHale said after the game.

The Bulls appeared to have the momentum to start the fourth quarter; but, Trevor Ariza began the quarter with a three-point basket. Terrence Jones followed with a driving layup. The Bulls called time-out; but, the Rockets stretched the 5-0 run to 13-0 and led 88-70 with 8:32 remaining in the ball game.

Ariza scored 14 of his 20 points in the final quarter.

"I think our pace was great, especially in the fourth quarter," Ariza said. "Defensively, we were great. We got stops that we needed. We came up with huge rebounds and gang rebounds and that's what we needed to do to win."

The Bulls failed to take advantage of Dwight Howard's absence. Earlier Wednesday, the Rockets announced Howard received a bone marrow aspirate injection in his right knee and will be re-evaluated in approximately four weeks. With Howard out of action, the Bulls' Paul Gasol was a non-factor for much of the game. Gasol attempted only 10 field goals (made 5) while perimeter players Derrick Rose (9 for 22 field goals), Jimmy Butler (9 for 18 field goals) and Nikola Mirotic (1 for 8 field goals in 12 minutes) launched shots from the outside.

In the Bulls' 114-105 win over the Rockets last month in Chicago, Pau Gasol dominated the Rockets with a solid 27 points, 14 rebounds effort.

"I think we just have to be consistent," Pau said. "We really haven’t found consistency all year long. It’s not a matter of effort, it’s a matter of working together, communicating and getting it done. We have to figure out what needs to be done individually and collectively. We all have to look ourselves in the mirror and see what we’re doing that’s working, what can we do differently because obviously right now we are not playing at our best and we need to get wins if we don’t want to fall off the train."

Motiejunas said, "Dwight (Howard) is out and we have to step it up. I think we did a great job today and I hope all of us are going to do the same job in each game and everyone is going to stop saying we are the weak link of the team and stuff like that."

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