HOUSTON — Jalen Green scored 26 points, Dillon Brooks had 23 before he was ejected and the Houston Rockets beat the Chicago Bulls 127-117 on Thursday night for their seventh consecutive victory.
The loss kept the Bulls (34-36) from reaching .500 for the first time since they were 2-2.
Ayo Dosunmu led the Bulls with a career-high 35 points on 13-of-18 shooting. Nikola Vučević had 16 points and 14 boards for his 40th double-double of the season. Coby White returned after missing three games with a right hip sprain and scored 13.
The Rockets are 9-1 in March and just 2½ games behind the Golden State Warriors for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference.
With the Rockets leading 84-75 with 6 minutes, 2 seconds left in the third quarter, Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan fouled Green, causing Brooks to become upset. DeRozan turned and subsequently elbowed Brooks in the chin, which caused an on-court scrum.
After review, the initial foul by DeRozan was ruled a flagrant-2, and he was ejected. Brooks was given a technical foul and ejected.
Brooks left the game with a team-leading 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting, while DeRozan exited with 16 points on just 4-of-15 shooting in 23 minutes.
After the delay, the Rockets finished the quarter strong to lead 105-94 and never looked back. The bench came through big, scoring 49 points compared with just 28 from the Bulls bench.
Jock Landale scored 17, Aaron Holiday had 15 and Jeff Green added 14, all off the bench for the Rockets. Amen Thompson had 15 points and eight rebounds.
