The Houston Rockets have now won nine of their last 10 games after defeating the New York Knicks 97-84. The Rockets bench came up huge in this game by scoring 61 of the teams 97 points. Chase Budinger came off the bench to lead all Rockets with 19 points which was his second straight game he led the team in scoring.
The Rockets did all of this without their leading scorer in Kevin Martin who sat out this game with plantar fasciitis and Kyle Lowry who is the teams third-leading scorer was held to only three points tonight. Courtney Lee filled in for the injured Martin and scored 14 points and had four steals.
The change in this game came during the second and third quarters when the Rockets outscored the Knicks by 16 points. The Knicks had a bad shooting night by by going 34 for 89 from the field and five of 26 from three-point land. The Knicks did get 23 points from Amare Stoudemire and 14 from Tyson Chandler, but that is all the significant scoring they received tonight and it was not enough to counter against the five Rockets who scored in double figures.
For more on this game Rockets fans should check out The Dream Shake and Knicks fans should stop in at Poasting and Toasting. For more NBA news and analysis head on over to SB Nation's NBA Basketball page.