• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Rockets rout Bobcats

Mar 15, 2012 - 6:15 AM Houston, TX (Sports Network) - Luis Scola scored 23 points and Goran Dragic added 14 and 10 assists for the Rockets in Wednesday's 107-87 rout of the Bobcats.

Jordan Hill had 14 points while Samuel Dalembert finished with 12 and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who were without starting guards Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin. Houston was coming off of Tuesday's victory over Oklahoma City and has won three of four after a five-game slide.

"It's two games in a row," said Houston guard Courtney Lee. "It's big for us to continue to keep winning."

Derrick Brown scored 15 points to pace the Bobcats. They defeated New Orleans on Monday but fell to an NBA-worst 6-35 with Wednesday's loss.

"It's not fair to (Bobcats owner Michael Jordan), or the organization, it's not fair to go out and not really play hard," said Charlotte coach Paul Silas.

The Bobcats were competitive in only one quarter against Houston, which led 30-18 by the end of the first behind nine points from Dragic.

In the second, Charlotte showed signs of life, reeling off a 16-3 run to pull within six.

The deficit was 38-20 when Reggie Williams triggered said burst with a three- pointer, then later capped it with a traditional three-point play, making it 41-36.

But the Rockets stretched the advantage back to double-digits, 50-40, by the break, getting a buzzer-beating jumper from Chase Budinger at the end of the second before scoring eight straight to start the third.

Samuel Dalembert opened the second half with an 18-footer and Scola followed with four in a row before Lee sunk a deep jumper to stretch Houston's advantage to 58-40.

It was 75-57 when the Rockets closed the third with an 11-0 run to put Charlotte away. Dalembert bookended the surge, starting it with a bucket inside and finishing with an alley-oop slam from Dragic, making it 86-57 entering the fourth.

The Bobcats didn't threaten the rest of the way.

"We just didn't play tough enough," said Silas. "They really came at us."

Game Notes

The Rockets have won seven straight over the Bobcats at Toyota Center and improved to 16-6 at home on the year...Charlotte fell to 3-20 as the visitor this season... Martin has a strained right shoulder while Lowry is out due to a bacterial infection.