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Sunday, Mar. 26 3:30pm ET
Williams, Francis lead Houston attack | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
HOUSTON (AP) -- Although Walt Williams is playing more, he still feels like he needs to prove himself early in games. Williams scored a season-high 24 points in the Houston Rockets' 123-78 rout of the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. It was the worst loss of the season for the Bulls, who have lost nine of 10 and 17 of 19. Steve Francis added 19 points for the Rockets, who set season highs for scoring and margin of victory. Williams was playing 18-20 minutes a game at the beginning of this season. That's when he learned to be more of a force on offense early in games. "I started feeling like I had to show these guys what I could do early in each game," Williams said. "I would tend to press a little more then. That's just the way I looked at playing consistently shorter minutes. It was very frustrating." Williams had all of his points in the first and third quarters against the Bulls. He played only one minute in the second and did not appear in the fourth. Williams scored 10 points in the first to help the Rockets jump to a 27-13 lead. Houston upped that margin to 26 in the second as reserve Moochie Norris added nine points. Williams scored 14 in the third as the Rockets led by as many as 49. "If they want me to score 50," Williams joked, "just play me 50 minutes." Williams averaged 19 points the previous four starts, and has shaken a mid-season slump. "It's amazing that he was at the bottom (in December)," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "Then he took the pressure off himself, and now he's making the shots he used to make." He said his offensive production is not unexpected. "I've always been capable of scoring," he said. "This is nothing special. My whole career, I've been able to score. Today, we just had some super wide-open shots." The 42 points the Rockets scored in the third was their season high for a quarter, and the first time this season Houston scored 100 by the end of the third. "Certainly we're not proud of this one," Bulls coach Tim Floyd said. "They totally dominated every facet of the game. We did not have a good effort on either end of the floor." Elton Brand led Chicago with 24 points, and Ron Artest added 22 as the Bulls trailed by as many as 49 in the third quarter. "From about four minutes into the game, we didn't even show up," Artest said. "It had to be our poorest effort of the season." Reserves dominated the final quarter as the Bulls never got closer than 42. Artest scored 11 of his points in the quarter. Game notesFrancis and Cuttino Mobley continue to lead the Rockets in scoring, marking only the second time in franchise history that two guards have led the team in that category. Calvin Murphy and Mike Newlin did it in 1975-76. ... Francis is the only player to be leading his team in four categories -- points, rebounds, assists and steals ... Brand leads the NBA in offensive rebounds with 4.5 per game ... Chris Anstey started the last four games and averaged 10 points and 11 rebounds the first three, but he managed just four points and two rebounds Sunday. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Chicago Clubhouse Houston Clubhouse RECAPS Orlando 94 Miami 69
Houston 123
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