Eric Gordon's 31 points leads Rockets in rout of the Bulls

Posted: March 27, 2018 -- 11:12 pm CDT.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets continued their dominance of the league (and this week lottery-bound teams) with a 118-86 dismantling of the Chicago Bulls. The 32 point margin of victory ties for the largest margin of victory this season.

Tonight's win is the Rockets 10th straight win. This is the Rockets' third double-digit winning streak this season.  The last team to record three winning streaks of at least 10 games in a single season was San Antonio in 2011-12.  The Rockets have now won 31 of their past 33 games, with the two losses coming by a total of five points.

"Yeah, I think as a veteran group that’s what we’re supposed to do," Trevor Ariza said after the game. "I think we’re supposed to play the same way every game no matter who the opponent is because at the end of the day it’s never about the other team for us. In our minds, our mindset has to be that it’s always about us."

As Head Coach Mike D'Antoni described his team's mindset, the Rockets are "locked in. No matter what. They came out with the right amount of energy. The right amount of concentration. Took care of business."

"And, we'll go back to the next one," D'Antoni continued. "But everything we’ve asked for them as a staff, or just everything that they know they had to do, have to do, and it’s just a great group of guys that understand the bigger picture and try to get it done."

Tonight's dominant win occurred without James Harden and Clint Capela. Harden (sore right hand) and Capela (left thumb sprain) rested and rehabbed tonight. Their absence was not felt one bit.

Eric Gordon scored a game-high 31 points. Gordon shot a scoring 8 for 13 from behind the three-point line (11 for 17 overall). He had a plus / minus of +39 in slightly more than 26 minutes of game action.

The Bulls scored the first two points of the game which meant the Rockets trailed in a game for the first time since last Thursday's game versus the Detroit Pistons.

At the 10:37 mark of the first quarter, Gordon made a three-point shot to give the Rockets a 3-2 lead.

Houston (61-14) never trailed the rest of the ball game.

The Rockets jumped to a 14-5 lead before Chicago's talented big man, Lauri Markkanen, scored seven straight points to trim the Rockets' lead to two (14-12). However, Gordon responded with 7 points during an 11-2 Rockets' run to increase the lead to 25-14 with 3:51 remaining in the opening quarter.

Houston led the Bulls 31-23 after the first period. Gordon and Trevor Ariza each scored 10 points in the first quarter.

The Rockets pounced on the Bulls in the second quarter and outscored the Bulls 29-16 in the quarter and led 60-39 at halftime.

The Rockets did not commit a single foul in the first half until 1:13 remained in the second quarter.

Houston continued the onslaught winning the third period 27-18. Houston led by as much as 40 points (83-43) in the third quarter.

The Bulls scored 10 consecutive points to reduce the lead to 30 points; but, the Rockets pushed the lead back to 40 in the fourth quarter and enjoyed the extended minutes for youngsters RJ Hunter and Zhou Qi.

Trevor Ariza scored 21 points tonight and is averaging 17.0 points per game over the past two games after averaging 7.7 points per game the previous three games.  Since rejoining Houston in 2014-15, the Rockets are 24-4 when he scores 20 or more points.  Ariza also had 4 steals without a turnover tonight after having a total of 5 steals the nine games prior.  He leads the NBA in steal-to-turnover ratio (1.78).

Chris Paul had 13 points, 10 assists and 4 steals in 28 minutes of play tonight after missing the previous three games due to injury.  The last Rocket to post those numbers in 28 or fewer minutes played was Allen Leavell on February 1, 1987 (16 points, 10 assists, 4 steals in 28 minutes at Atlanta).  It is Paul’s 14th double-double of the season.  The Rockets improve to 15-1 when he has 10 or more assists.

"Yeah, we just try to approach each game the right way," Paul said. "Regardless of who they have playing, regardless of who we have playing, we have a job to do and we just wanted to get a win and get out of here."

"Gosh, Eric Gordon played great, Chris Paul looked good, being had he missed a few games," Gerald Green said. "I just think we played an all-around game today."

Gordon has scored 30 or more points five times this season after doing so five times the previous four seasons combined (once for Houston in 2016-17).  Over the past five games, Gordon is averaging 22.4 points on 53.9% shooting.

"We are coming in every game with good energy," Eric Gordon commented. "We know we have to play well defensively always and just share the ball. That’s what we need to get back to, is sharing the ball because when we are sharing the ball and knocking down shots it fuels us even more on defense, and we played very good on both sides of the ball."

Tonight marks the fifth time the Rockets have held an opponent below 90 points this season.  Houston has held the opposition below 100 points in four straight games for the first time since January 7 to January 12, 2015.  The Rockets improve to 30-2 when holding opponents below the century mark this season after going 18-0 in 2016-17.

The Rockets' next game is Friday, March 30, versus the Phoenix Suns, at 7 p.m. Central Time.

CLICK HERE for The HRR's Rockets' write-ups.