Suns at Rockets
The Phoenix Suns yielded 125 points at home against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday and is last in the Western Conference in scoring defense at an average of 113.6 allowed. The Suns will try to put together a few more stops when they begin a stretch of four of five on the road by visiting the Rockets on Monday.
Phoenix took a step forward on the defensive end Friday when it overcame a 13-point halftime deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers by holding them to 19 points in the third quarter after getting called out by coach Earl Watson in the locker room. "They were getting everything they wanted," guard Brandon Knight told the Arizona Republic after the 123-116 win. "He came out and did what a great coach should do. He told us what we did wrong and chewed us out for it. Everybody got pumped for the second half and it made a big difference." The Rockets are a much different test for the defense than the 76ers, and will be motivated to turn things around after falling at Memphis on Friday for their second loss in three games. Houston attempts more 3-pointers than any other team in the league but not even 20-of-52 from beyond the arc was enough to down the Grizzlies in a 115-109 setback.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona (Phoenix), ROOT (Houston)
ABOUT THE SUNS (9-21): Phoenix point guard Eric Bledsoe collected 24 points and 11 assists in Friday's win, but his biggest contributions might have come with three blocks on the defensive end. "I just do what I always do," Bledsoe told reporters. "Made big plays, not only scoring the ball but playing great defense and helping everybody out. Try to be a great leader out there and it rubbed off on everybody else. We just played great team basketball tonight." Bledsoe was not as sharp against the Rockets and struggled to contain the backcourt duo of James Harden and Patrick Beverley in Wednesday's setback.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (22-9): Harden recorded 27 points and 14 assists in the win over the Suns while Beverley narrowly missed a triple-double with 18 points, nine rebounds and nine assists as Houston shot 53.5 percent from the field. Harden, Beverley and shooting guard Eric Gordon were off on Friday, shooting a combined 9-of-31 from beyond the arc. “We lost tonight, but that doesn’t mean that they are better than we are," Rockets small forward Trevor Ariza told ESPN.com. "That just means we have to watch the film, check our mistakes and get better at what we didn’t do well tonight. We know we can make shots, but when we’re not making shots we need to improve on that."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Rockets PF Montrezl Harrell went 8-of-11 from the floor in the win over at Phoenix and is shooting 66.3 percent from the field in December.
2. Suns SF T.J. Warren scored 19 points in each of the last two contests after totaling two points in his first two games back from a head injury.
3. The visiting team took the last seven in the series, with Phoenix earning a 124-115 win at Houston in its last trip on April 7.