Suns at Rockets
James Harden is used to piling up the points and he will attempt to follow up the highest-scoring effort of his career when the Houston Rockets host the Phoenix Suns on Saturday. Harden poured in a career-high 50 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Houston’s 118-108 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday. “It just looked so easy,” Rockets forward Trevor Ariza told reporters. “It was like he just woke up and walked out there and had 50. That’s how easily he scored the basketball.”
The Rockets are 3-0 against the Suns this season, and Harden is averaging 29.3 points against Phoenix, including 40 points in a 127-118 victory on Feb. 10. The Suns only scored 24 more points as a team than Harden did by himself but still produced a 74-72 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday, matching the franchise mark for fewest points scored in a victory. Phoenix is three game behind the eighth-place Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference playoff race, while the Rockets stand third in the West and are putting heat on the second-place Memphis Grizzlies.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona (Phoenix), ROOT (Houston)
ABOUT THE SUNS (36-33): Point guard Eric Bledsoe was one of the cold-shooting players by scoring just five points on 2-of-15 shooting against the Pelicans but was more interested in talking about other areas of his game, which included four steals and matching his career high with 11 rebounds. “I played great defense, I had 11 rebounds, I helped my teammates on the boards,” Bledsoe told reporters. “Steals, I had a bunch of steals too. So if I’m not making shots, don’t worry about it because I do so much to help my team win.” Center Brandan Wright had a big game – offensive and defensively – with 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting and matching his career high of seven blocked shots.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (46-22): Houston will be without power forward Terrence Jones for at least three games after he suffered a collapsed lung in the win over the Nuggets. Jones was hospitalized overnight, and coach Kevin McHale told reporters that Jones is “having a tough time breathing” from the hard hit he took in the ribs. “He came out here and gave us the right energy and played well and got back in the starting lineup and for something like this to happen is very unfortunate,” guard Patrick Beverley told reporters in reference to Jones.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Rockets have won the last five meetings and seven of the past nine.
2. Phoenix will be without PG Brandon Knight (ankle) for the fifth straight game and C Alex Len (ankle) likely will sit out for the third consecutive contest.
3. Houston SG Jason Terry (hamstring) has missed two straight games but is expected to return against the Suns.