Warriors and Lakers are already shaking! Rockets win their seventh straight game and move closer to the Play-In

The Houston Rockets are on fire and continue to scare the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors in the fight for the last play-in spot in the Western Conference.

They entered this matchup on a 6-game winning streak and was able to add to it with a 127-117 victory over the Chicago Bulls at Toyota Center. However, there was on-court altercations in this one that required ejections.

With 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter, Jalen Green was bringing the ball up the court. All of a sudden, DeMar DeRozan came out of nowhere and body slammed the Rockets guard to the ground. The former 2nd overall pick stayed on the floor in pain while his teammate, Dillon Brooks, stepped in to protect his guy.

The former Grizzly went straight up to Deebo and both players were sharing words while staring each other down and tugging on jerseys. This led to shoving which eventually caused players to fall down. Teammates, coaches, and refs tried to de-escalate the situation. After reviewal, both players got ejected from the contest.

Brooks finished with 23 points on 10/13 shooting before getting ejected. The victim in the scuffle, Jalen Green, scored a team-high 26 points with 4 made triples. Amen Thompson had 15 points with 8 rebounds while Fred VanVleet recorded 9 points with 12 assists. Jock Landale had a nice contribution off the bench as he ended with 17 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks.

DeMar DeRozan finished with 16 points on 4/15 shooting prior to his ejection. Ayo Dosunmu scored a game-high 35 points with 5 made three-pointers while Nikola Vucevic recorded 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists. Alex Caruso scored 12 points while Coby White provided 13 points off the bench.

Houston improves to 34-35 with this win and now sit just 2.5 games behind the Warriors and 3 games behind the Lakers for one of the final play-in spots. It seemed like the Rockets were out of contention but they’ve been playing amazing basketball, going 9-1 over their last 10 games including 7 wins in a row. They’ll look to keep up this hot streak on Saturday against the Utah Jazz.

Chicago drops to 34-36 with this loss and remain the 9th seed in the East. The Bulls look like they’re locked into this spot, meaning that they will get to host the first play-in game but will have to win both games in the tournament just to advance to the 8th seed. They are 6-4 over their last 10 games and will face off against the Boston Celtics on Saturday.