HOUSTON (AP) — Jalen Green scored 26 points, Dillon Brooks had 23 before he was ejected from the game and the Rockets won their seventh straight, 127-117 over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.
Houston has gone 9-1 in March and is now just 2 1/2 games behind Golden State for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference. The Rockets’ seven-game winning streak is their longest since 2021.
With the Rockets leading 84-75 with 6:02 left in the third quarter, a foul committed by DeMar DeRozan on Green caused Brooks to become upset. DeRozan turned and subsequently elbowed Brooks in the chin, which caused an on-court scrum.
After review, the initial foul by DeRozan was ruled a flagrant foul 2 and he was ejected. Brooks was given a technical foul and ejected for his role in the scrum.
Brooks left the game at the time with a team-leading 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting, while DeRozan exited with 16 points on just 4-of-15 shooting in 23 minutes.
After the delay, Houston finished the quarter strong to lead 105-94 and never looked back. The bench came through big for Houston, scoring 49 points, compared to just 28 from Chicago’s bench.
Jock Landale scored 17, Aaron Holiday had 15 and Jeff Green added 14, all off the bench for Houston. Amen Thompson had 15 points and eight rebounds.
For Chicago, Ayo Dosunmu led the way with 35 points on 13-of-18 shooting. Nikola Vučević scored 16 points and grabbed 14 boards for his 40th double-double of the season. Coby White returned to play after missing the last three games due to a right hip sprain and scored 13 for the Bulls.
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