Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
Ashley Landis/Associated Press
The Houston Rockets earned their sixth win in a row at Toyota Center on Saturday night, defeating the Chicago Bulls 117-114 in a game that was close to its conclusion.
Chicago presented much more of a challenge to Houston than the reeling Dallas Mavericks, who the Rockets defeated easily 133-96 on Friday night. The Bulls led for the majority of the first half before giving up their advantage to end the third quarter. They hung with Houston throughout the final period, leading the game with just over half the quarter remaining. But 13 points from Jalen Green in the final six minutes allowed Houston to hang on for a win.
“We make every game interesting,” point guard Fred VanVleet said. “Good, bad and ugly. But it’s going to be a fight, and I think that we’ve built a good brand of basketball here and it’s continued to grow. I’m excited for the end of the season.”
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Houston made things interesting late. With under a minute to go and leading by five, the Green drove the right side of the court for a transition layup instead of slowing down the possession. That decision was met with a block by Patrick Williams and a Zach Collins 3-pointer on the other end, shortening the Rockets lead to just two with 37 seconds to play.
“Obviously, the one with Jalen, we wanted to pull that out and milk the clock, use time,” head coach Ime Udoka said. “The only thing on our side that hurts us is a quick shot that we miss and obviously hit the three to get it to a one possession game. Just got to pull that out, break the press and use the clock. Get the matchup that you like, the shots you like, not anything rushed there. That’s the only one we would like to get back.”
But Green made up for the mistake, coming up with a miraculous play to ultimately put Houston on top. With the clock winding down, the Rockets lacked options but escaped turnover-worthy passes to give Dillon Brooks a look for a 3-pointer. The attempt bounced off the rim and gave the Bulls a chance for a rebound and opportunity to steal a late victory. But instead, Green completed that mission, screaming in for an offensive board and tipping in the game-sealing layup.
Green led all scorers with 28 points. He was one of three Rockets with 20-plus points, as teammates Alperen Şengün (24 points) and VanVleet (23 points) joined him.
“If it’s not him, its going to be me or Fred,” Şengün said of Green’s late-game heroics. “We communicate a lot, we trust each other a lot. I think (the success) is coming from that.”
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While Houston emerged victorious, it didn’t look pretty to start. It looked like a team lacking energy on the second half of a back-to-back in the first quarter. The team shot 11-for-25 from the floor, had sloppy offensive play that led to five turnovers and opened lanes defensively to let up easy Bulls baskets inside.
But the big difference that created Chicago’s 29-22 lead after the first period was a sharp disparity from deep. The Bulls were lights out from 3-point range to begin the game, shooting 7-for-12 from behind the arc in the first period. Houston, on the other hand, couldn’t get anything going behind the line, shooting just 2-for-13.
“That was one of the toughest games we’ve played lately,” Şengün said. “But it ended up finishing good. We played yesterday, so we were a little bit tired. But we just got the win.”
Under two percentage points separated the teams’ three-point shooting (36.4% for Chicago to Houston’s 34.6%) entering the night, so regression to the mean was due. That came to fruition for both sides. The Bulls went cold as they shot 1-for-8 from three in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Houston — or more specifically VanVleet — found its stroke from deep. The point guard went 4-for-6 on 3s as the Rockets improved to 7-for-12 in the quarter. VanVleet’s strong shooting period was capped by a buzzer-beating acrobatic 3-pointer to end the half, giving him 18 points in the quarter and 21 through the first 24 minutes.
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“Just being aggressive,” VanVleet said of how he found success in the second quarter. “Didn’t start the greatest again, but just trying to find my rhythm after being out for while. Body’s still getting used to being out there and back-to-back, I definitely felt the back-to-back tonight. Just trying to find a rhythm, got a couple to go down and just wanted to stay aggressive.”
VanVleet made his return against the Mavericks on Friday after a five-game hiatus. Saturday was just his third game since the start of February as he missed 16 of the Rockets’ previous 18 contests with separate injuries to his right ankle.
The point guard couldn’t replicate his success in the second half, scoring just two points on 1-for-7 shooting. But he still found a way to create points, picking up five assists in the final two quarters.
Despite the shooting script flipping, Houston still trailed 65-60 going into halftime. That was due to continued carelessness with the basketball. The Rockets added four turnovers in the second quarter for nine total in the first half, three of which came in a detrimental 28 seconds.
After a Green three gave Houston its first lead of the period, a bad pass and two Bulls steals marked the next three possessions, leading to five points in transition to regain momentum for Chicago. The Bulls road that momentum to a double-digit lead with just over a minute to go. Eight straight points from VanVleet to close the half trimmed Chicago’s advantage to five, but sloppy Houston play kept the struggling shooting squad in the lead.
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The break gave the Rockets a chance to clean up its play as it had just one turnover in the third quarter. Their ball security combined with early Bulls fouls putting them in the bonus gave Houston an avenue back into the lead. Şengün scored six early points to give the Rockets the advantage and himself his 38th double-double of the season (24 points, 15 rebounds in total). But Houston couldn’t separate, quickly relinquishing the lead to a Coby White 3-pointer. After both teams traded the lead throughout the period, a Jabari Smith Jr. jump shot put Houston up 85-83 going into the final quarter.
The Rockets finished the night 44-for-98 shooting, including 14-for-44 from 3-point range, 15-for-26 on free throws and had 11 turnovers. All those figures were worse than Chicago’s, but Houston found a way to come out on top.
That final result was an important one as they near season’s end. Just two games separated the Western Conference’s second seed and fifth seed entering the night, and Houston was squarely in the middle after jumping into the third slot after beating Dallas on Friday. A surprise victory by the Washington Wizards over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday puts the Rockets (43-25) at No. 2 thanks to tiebreakers with the Nuggets and Grizzlies with 14 games to play. Houston will host Denver next Sunday in what could be a pivotal matchup for playoff seeding.
