It’s not surprising Samuel Dalembert got off to a slow start considering he
signed with the Houston Rockets a day before their opener.

Three weeks into the season he appears to have found his rhythm.

Dalembert looks to lead the Rockets to a fifth straight win Thursday night
against the struggling New Orleans Hornets.

After opening with seven losses in 10 games, Houston (7-7) got back to .500
with Tuesday’s 97-80 win over Detroit. Dalembert finished with 14 points and 12
rebounds while Luis Scola also scored 14 for the Rockets, who improved to 5-1 at
home.

“We are back to .500, which is where we wanted to be after a bit of a slow
start,” Scola said. “I think the best thing is that we are playing better.”

Dalembert has certainly shown some significant improvement.

Signed on Christmas, the 6-foot-11 center averaged 5.6 points and 5.9 boards
in the Rockets’ first 10 games. He has since emerged as a major force in the
paint, averaging 15.3 points on 69.2 percent shooting and 11.8 rebounds during
the four-game winning streak.

“He’s just playing wonderful basketball for us right now,” coach Kevin
McHale said.

While McHale is thrilled with Dalembert’s play, he’s also happy to get
reserve guard Courtney Lee back.

Lee returned Tuesday after missing eight straight games with a strained
right calf, and is expected to help spell Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry. Martin,
scoring a team-best 17.4 points per game, is averaging 40.7 minutes in six
contests since Jan. 10, while Lowry, averaging 17.3 points, is playing 39.5
minutes a game.

Both of those workloads are among the top 10 in the league.

“Those guys have been playing a lot of heavy minutes this year,” McHale
said. “I know there’s diminishing returns when you play that much – you just get
too tired. So having Courtney back will help that.”

A little break in the schedule should also help the Rockets. After wrapping
up a stretch of eight games in 12 days Tuesday, Houston now plays four times
over the next eight days with no back-to-backs.

The Rockets have lost six of the last seven meetings with the Hornets, but
New Orleans is an entirely different team without Chris Paul and David West.

The Hornets (3-11) arrive in Houston after Wednesday’s 93-87 loss to
Memphis, their fifth straight defeat and 11th in 12 games.

Jarrett Jack matched a season high with 27 points on 11 of 15 shooting and
Trevor Ariza had a season-best 18 points while making 7 of 13, but the rest of
the team shot 38.1 percent (16 of 42).

For the most part, it was an encouraging outing for Ariza, who played 40
minutes and also had season highs of seven assists and four steals after sitting
out the previous eight games with a pulled right groin. He did have five of New
Orleans’ 18 turnovers, however.

“We’ve just got to make better basketball plays,” said Jack, who is
averaging 23.7 points on 59.5 percent shooting in the last three games after
averaging 10.5 points on 34.1 percent shooting in his previous four.

“It has nothing to do with the coaches, anybody else. It’s these 15 guys in
the locker room, it’s on our shoulders to make it and get it better.”

HOUSTON (AP) – The Houston Rockets are donating 100
air-conditioning units to needy homes in the city, where the
temperature has hovered around 100 degrees for most of the summer.

Rockets chief executive officer Tad Brown and former Rocket
Clyde Drexler helped install the first unit on Tuesday afternoon at
the home of Dora Fannon, southeast of the city. Fannon says her air
conditioner shut down in April.

The Rockets are teaming with Sheltering Arms Senior Services to
distribute the units in various parts of the city. Brown says they
should all be installed and running by the end of this week.

The National Weather Service said Tuesday that the official
temperature in the city hit 100 degrees for a record 40th time this
year. The previous record was 32.