Mavericks at Rockets
The Houston Rockets continue to struggle and attempt to find their
stride when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. Houston lost to
the Denver Nuggets on Friday to fall a game below .500 and hasn't looked
anything like the squad that reached the Western Conference finals last
season.
Rockets coach Kevin McHale has been frustrated since the start of the season and that pattern continued after his team committed 20 turnovers in the 107-98 loss to Denver. "We didn't play very well," McHale told reporters. "We had effort issues. We had some times when they outran us. At times they outhustled us on the boards. There were times that we missed easy shots and hung our heads. We just aren't playing very well right now." Dallas enters with a two-game winning streak and perhaps fortunate to have that after shooting just 36.6 percent from the field in Friday's 90-82 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki was one of the struggling shooters as he scored a season-low nine points on 4-of-13 shooting.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), ROOT (Houston)
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (5-4): Dallas took aim at DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers in the free-agent derby but fell short and ended up trading for veteran post player Zaza Pachulia. That acquisition has proven to be better than anticipated as Pachulia has five double-doubles and six double-digit rebounding efforts in nine games after recording season highs of 18 points and 16 rebounds in the win over the Lakers. "My numbers don't count. They don't matter without the win," Pachulia told reporters. "Thank you to my teammates for finding me. Thank you to my teammates for missing some good shots offensively so that I could get some offensive rebounds."
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (4-5): Standout guard James Harden had 28 points and eight rebounds against the Nuggets and he feels the team's issues are fixable. "Just small things we can correct," Harden told reporters. "They are major problems, but not major things that are out of our hands." Harden's scoring production hasn't been a problem as he has topped 20 points in six consecutive games and is averaging 34.2 points during the stretch.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Rockets have won four of the past five regular-season meetings.
2. Dallas SF Chandler Parsons (knee) will sit out against his former club as he's not yet ready to play both ends of a back-to-back.
3. Houston PF Terrence Jones had his best game of the season with 23 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots against Denver.