Houston Rockets Muzzle Chicago Bulls 101-90

I’m loving this — the Houston Rockets have won five of their last six games!

Quite impressive huh?

It would’ve been six-in-a-row, the Rockets badly fumbled against the Detroit Pistons this past Saturday.

They just couldn’t stop the low-post combo of Andre Drummond/Greg Monroe.

Despite all of that, they still went on a 23-6 run in the 4th quarter to try to beat the Pistons but just ran out of gas toward the end.

But as we fast-forward to last night, the Rockets had a tough match up against the Chicago Bulls.

The last time they faced each other was Jan. 5 and they couldn’t quite stop the power of Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah has they both combined for 24 of the team’s 47 total rebounds.

The Rockets fell to the Bulls 115-104 in that outing on the road at United Center.

But last night was different, you could almost see it in the Rockets’ eyes!

They had a bad taste in their mouth after getting roughed up by the Pistons and wanted to redeem themselves.

They knew that they were better than that.

And it showed.

The Rockets got going early with a smooth jump hook followed by a bank hook by Donatas Motiejunas right out the starting gate!

These teams played each other quite hard and went up by as much as seven points after Gasol connected on two free throws off a D-Mo foul with 3:17 left. Bulls 22, Rockets 15

But it was James Harden that led a 7-0 run to put the Rockets back on top 27-24. It started with a beautiful reverse layup on the drive and culminated with a three-pointer!

Feb 4, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets forward

Trevor Ariza

(1) shoots against Chicago Bulls guard

Aaron Brooks

(0) in the second half at Toyota Center. Rockets won 101 tom90. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

But Mirotic answered with a three of his own tying the game at the end of the 1st quarter, 27-27.

Noah already had 10 rebounds to his credit at the end of the quarter.

Josh Smith was the motor to the Rockets offensive machine early in the second quarter.

He was out there doing what he normally has been asked to do — play tenacious defense, block shots and take making good shot selections.

He did all of that and contributed with a layup and three-pointer to put the Rockets up by three with 8:46 left. Rockets 34, Bulls 31

After Derrick Rose answered with three-ball, D-Mo helped start another run — 5-0 to be exact — to put the Rockets up 41-35 with 5:52 left.

This was after another Harden layup on the drive.

For the last five minutes of the 1st half, it was the James Harden show.

Nobody could defend him! It was step-back central!

He scored 13 of his 20 points in the 1st half in that stretch to keep the Rockets on top at the half, 57-48.

At the start of the third quarter, it was all D-Mo contributing with high-flying driving layups, jump hooks and his consistent pounding of the boards.

After D-Mo was able to get an offensive rebound and tip back in, this put the Rockets up 15 points causing Tom Thibadeau to take a timeout with 6:50 left. Rockets 65, Bulls 50

Rose came out the timeout with a impressive pull-up but Patrick Beverley countered with a bank shot on the run with 6:21 left. Rockets 67, Bulls 52

Yes, the bank was open tonight!

Feb 4, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls center

Joakim Noah

(13) and Houston Rockets forward

Donatas Motiejunas

(20) fight for a loose ball in the first quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

But the Bulls went on a 6-0 run to close the gap to 75-70 at the end of the third. That was a combination of Jimmy Butler‘s shooting and Taj Gibson working in the paint and drawing fouls to get to the line.

The Rockets started to pummel the Bulls early in the 4th, even without Harden who was on the bench icing those likely sore knees.

We didn’t need him at the moment, as the Rockets hot shooting allowed them to go up by as much as 18 points.

Trevor Ariza, Terrence Jones and Corey Brewer all worked in concert to put together a 10-0 run resulting in that said 18-point lead. Rockets 88, Bulls 70

The Bulls did trim their deficit to 10 points after a Gasol put-back with 2:37 left but it was not enough for the Rockets defense that continued to be stingy all the way to the end of regulation.

Harden hit the dagger of the night with a three-pointer heard ’round the world with 25 seconds left. Rockets 101, Bulls 87

Game…set…MATCH!

The Rockets held on to win 101-90!

What a game and an incredible defensive effort!

Feb 4, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets forward

Josh Smith

(5) out rebounds Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah (13) in the second half at Toyota Center. Rockets won 101 tom90. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

The Rockets held the Bulls to 34.8 percent shooting despite being out-rebounded 60-47.

We knew that the Bulls work the glass well– more than half of shots missed in any manner are rebounded — with their plethora of talent in the paint but the Rockets found a way to win to which I’m proud!

Harden led all Rockets’ scorers with 27 points, four assists and two blocks off 9-for-20 FG, 3-for-5 from behind-the-arc and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.

Ariza had one of his better offensive games of the season with 20 points, five rebounds and two steals.

He was on fire — shooting 7-for-10 from FG, 3-for-5 from the three-point line and a perfect 3-for-3 from the free-throw line.

Cue up Fireball by Pitbull please! Wow!