Rockets at Mavericks
The Houston Rockets are still trying to find some consistency more than one quarter of the way through the season and are not finding much success on the current road trip. The Rockets will try to turn their offense around and avoid a three-game slide when they visit the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.
Houston averaged 128.5 points in wins over San Antonio and Chicago but followed that up with 91 points in back-to-back games while falling at Minnesota and Utah to begin a three-game trip. The Rockets shot 38.6 percent from the floor in Thursday's 118-91 loss to the Jazz as James Harden's 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting led the team despite marking his lowest output of the season. The Mavericks, who trounced the Rockets 128-108 in Houston on Nov. 28 despite a triple-double from Harden, are trying to bounce back from their own disappointing performance in a 132-106 loss at New Orleans on Wednesday. "We couldn't get it going from start to finish," Dallas forward Harrison Barnes told reporters. "It's tough to win games when you have a team that's shooting over 50 percent from the field and almost 60 percent from three."
TV: 6 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Houston), FS Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (11-13): Houston coach Mike D'Antoni placed some of the blame for the team's offensive woes on its inability to control the game on the defensive end of the floor Thursday. "We just didn't contain our guy and they just got away from us," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni told reporters. "They just played a lot better than we played. ... We're obviously searching for answers and we haven't found them yet. We'll keep searching and regather, and game on (Saturday)." D'Antoni also bemoaned the team's 23 turnovers - seven by Harden - which led to 33 points for the Jazz.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (12-11): Rookie forward Luka Doncic, who scored 20 points in the Nov. 28 win at Houston and leads the team in scoring at an average of 18.1 points, was held to eight points on 2-of-8 shooting in Wednesday's setback and is 10-of-35 from the floor over his last three outings. "It was just a bad day, a bad game," Doncic told reporters after Wednesday's loss. "We didn't do our jobs, so just move on to the next one." Dallas stands a much better chance at home, where it owns a 10-2 record and is outscoring opponents by an average of 5.6 points.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Rockets signed rookie PF Gary Clark to a three-year contract, converting his two-way deal.
2. Mavericks PG Dennis Smith Jr. sat out Wednesday's loss with a wrist injury and is day-to-day.
3. Houston had an eight-game winning streak in the series come to an end with the Nov. 28 loss.