Gordon returns to lineup but not as starter
CHICAGO — Guard Eric Gordon returned Saturday after missing one game with a sore left hamstring. However, the Rockets returned to the starting lineup they used to open the season, with Danuel House Jr. starting and Gordon coming off the bench.
Gordon had started the backto-back in Miami and Memphis, but Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said then and again Saturday that he made the change to “get him going.” Gordon had struggled with his shot this season, but the move to return House to the starting lineup was made for the same reasons D’Antoni initially had Gordon playing as his sixth man.
“That’s the best way to go for the team,” D’Antoni said. “I was just trying to get Eric started. He doesn’t need it. It’s a better rotation.”
D’Antoni said he prefers to have Gordon play off the bench to make it easier to always have two guards from among Gordon, James Harden and Russell Westbrook on the floor at all times. Gordon has struggled to find his shot early in the season, averaging 10.3 points and making just 23.3 percent of his 3-pointers going into Saturday’s game.
“If you start him, then … it’s like too many minutes he has to play,” D’Antoni said. “And we need probably a little more size to start the game off.”
House, at 6-6, gives the Rockets a more traditional lineup than with the 6-3 Gordon starting. He has played well in the role, averaging 13.1 points and making 45.8 percent of his shots before facing the Bulls. His 5.4 rebounds per game going into Saturday ranked third on the Rockets.
“Danuel’s playing really well,” D’Antoni said. “And the defense to start (games) with that group has been really good.”
The Rockets’ defense, with the starting lineup on the floor, had allowed just 90.3 points per 100 possessions with a net rating of plus-27.4. Overall, the Rockets had allowed 113.1 points per 100 possessions to rank 28th in the NBA.
Chicago’s Boylen still draws from ‘Rudy T’
Though Jim Boylen has worked with many elite coaches, in his first full season as Bulls coach he has found himself often thinking of what he learned from his first coach in the NBA.
Some of that did not require much of a memory. Rudy Tomjanovich, who hired Boylen in 1992, spent four days with Boylen and the Bulls during training camp. But Boylen, who also worked for Nate McMillan and Gregg Popovich, said he applies many of the lessons he picked up from 1992 to 2003 while serving as a Rockets assistant.
“I say a lot of Rudy things,” Boylen said. “I tell a lot of Rudy stories to my assistants because of the way Rudy handled situations and how Rudy handled difficult situations. We have a lot of those in this league. (I like) how he handled those things.
“Rudy and I walked a lot. We’d go walking on gamedays and after practice and we would go over those conversations. I learned a ton about how to have them, how to be direct and honest without being combative. Rudy was a very caring coach. So, yeah, I repeat a lot of things Rudy said and did.”
Iconic PA announcer calls final Bulls game
Iconic Chicago public address announcer Tommy Edwards, who created the famous Bulls introduction before the championship era and carried it on when he returned, called the last game of his career Saturday.
Edwards began working as the PA announcer in Chicago Stadium in 1976 and through the start of Michael Jordan’s era. Ray Clay took over when Edwards’ disk jockey career took him out of town. He came up with the familiar introduction to the Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius,” the instrumental introduction to the song “Eye in the Sky.” Thompson returned in 2006.
“Everybody knows that introduction,” Rockets guard Austin Rivers, whose family is from Chicago, said, humming the music. “It’s the best intro in sports.”