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Suns head to Houston to tangle with Rockets

Feb 5, 2014 - 3:27 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Houston Rockets have won three straight and will look to extend their winning streak Wednesday night when the Phoenix Suns visit the Toyota Center.

Houston has toppled San Antonio and Cleveland at home and sandwiched a road win in Dallas between home victories. They've won six of eight with the only setbacks in a home-and-home series with the Memphis Grizzlies last week.

The Rockets are well-rested since their last game, a 106-92 victory over the Cavs on Saturday.

James Harden showed no ill signs of a thumb injury and Jeremy Lin recorded his first career triple-double in a reserve role for the Rockets.

Harden was sidelined in the wins against San Antonio and Dallas earlier this week and returned to the tune of 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting.

Lin finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in 29 minutes, and Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones added 26 and 17 points, respectively.

"Jeremy had a really good game. We really needed it. He came out and brought good juice," Rockets head coach Kevin McHale said of Lin.

The Rockets shot 51.3 percent from the field and crushed the Cavs on the glass, 44-32.

The Suns were the hottest team in the league until Tuesday night. They had a five-game winning streak snapped in Phoenix at the hands of the Chicago Bulls, 101-92.

The Suns opened the game with just 13 points in the first quarter and 33 in the first half. They made just six field goals in both the first and second quarters while shooting an uncharacteristically low 30.0 percent (12-of-40) from the field.

"We could never get it going," Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek said. "We could never get over the hump."

Goran Dragic scored half of his 24 points in the fourth quarter for Phoenix, which trailed less than two minutes total in its previous four games.

Channing Frye finished with 18, followed by 13 from Leandro Barbosa and 12 out of Markieff Morris. Miles Plumlee pulled down 10 rebounds as the Suns tried for their longest winning streak since winning 10 in a row from March 14-April 2, 2010.

Phoenix won this season's only matchup, a 97-88 victory in Houston on Dec. 4. The Suns have taken five of the last seven meetings, but have dropped four of six as the visitor in this series.