Raptors aim to take down soaring Rockets

TORONTO -- The last time the Houston Rockets played the Toronto Raptors, they lost 115-102 at home.

Nothing much has gone wrong for the Rockets since that game on Nov. 23. They are on a 20-3 tear since that encounter and will take a seven-game winning streak into their return match against the Raptors on Sunday night at the Air Canada Centre.

James Harden is also on a roll, having produced a double-double in 16 straight games, the longest such streak in the NBA in five years.

The Rockets (20-9) have another advantage. They did not play Saturday, while the Raptors lost 123-118 in overtime to the Bulls in Chicago, despite leading by 19 points late in the third quarter

The Raptors (24-12) have lost 10 in a row to the Bulls, last defeating them Dec. 31, 2013.

Houston, however, has lost eight of its past nine games in Toronto.

In their win over the Orlando Magic on Friday, the Rockets hit on 15 3-point shots in 49 attempts. It was the 22nd game this season in which the Rockets have made at least 15 3-point shots. No other team had more than seven games with 15 or more 3-pointers entering Saturday. They average 39.9 attempts from 3-point range per game, the most in the league.

"When you shoot about 50 3s, you're going to make about 10," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni told the Houston Chronicle. "Besides missing everything we threw up (Friday), I think we've been really good offensively and we can get a lot better. We've got a bunch of guys that can score. That's not going to be our problem. We're going to score in bunches, we've just got to keep developing good habits and become a championship mentality. We're not there yet, but it's getting close."

The win against Orlando was a little more difficult than Houston would have liked.

"We need to be ready to go from the start and play with a chip on our shoulders," said Eric Gordon, who provided 17 points off the bench Friday for the Rockets. "We are getting everybody's best now because we are one of the best teams out there."

The Raptors were without Patrick Patterson for the fourth straight game Saturday. He has a strained left knee and they miss his defensive presence coming off the bench, plus his ability to hit the 3-point shot.

Jimmy Butler led the Bulls with 42 points and DeMar DeRozan led Toronto with 36.

The Bulls grabbed 16 offensive rebounds in the second half alone on Saturday and coach Dwane Casey felt that was the determining factor

"We did a good job of getting stops," Casey said. "Now you've got to come up with the rebound. "It's one of the reasons we put two bigs back in the game, and we just didn't do a good job of cleaning it up. ... It seemed like every time they came up with an offensive board, they cashed in."

The Raptors were outrebounded 60-41 and outscored 26-7 in second-chance points.

"You make your breaks, you set the tone, you maintain your tone, the intensity, the toughness," Casey said. "You can't relax, no matter what the lead is in this league."

"That game will bother me," said Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, who had 27 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds. "Should have won that game."

The Raptors will not have much time dwell on it. The Rockets were in Toronto waiting for them.