The Houston Rockets will resume their playoff push in Rip City on Monday aiming for a perfect four-game road trip against a desperate Portland Trail Blazers club.
The surging Rockets have won the first three stops of their trek with the latest triumph coming Sunday in Sacramento when Courtney Lee paced six Houston players in double figures with 25 points, and the Rockets took care of the Kings, 104-87.
"I felt good," Lee said. "We're continuing to win...I feel good about it."
Goran Dragic chipped in 15 points and nine assists, and Patrick Patterson added 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Houston, which continued to excel following impressive wins over the Bulls and Lakers.
Kyle Lowry returned Sunday for the first time in a month after missing 15 straight games due to a bacterial infection and recorded seven assists in 17 minutes.
"I was glad to be back. I wanted to play last game but coach said no," Lowry said.
The Rockets, currently the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoff race, forced 21 turnovers and never trailed.
The Blazers, who are opening up a three-game homestand tonight, are 11th in the West, 3 1/2 games behind No. 8 Denver after a 116-94 setback in Milwaukee on Saturday.
LaMarcus Aldridge netted 21 points and Raymond Felton contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.
Portland actually carried a 63-54 advantage into third quarter but imploded from there.
"I think it was a tale of two halves," Blazers interim head coach Kaleb Canales said. "You have got to give their defense credit, but we talked about our defense and we need to get better at it and we will get better at it."
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