USMAN GARUBA

Hey guys it’s Ari Alexander checking in. It’s a bit of a change going from covering the World Series winning Astros to the potentially lottery pick Rockets. There are pockets of things to get excited about with the boys in red, including the growth of their young guys.

Devin Booker scored 30 points, Cam Johnson added 19 and the Phoenix Suns won their fourth straight game by beating the Houston Rockets 124-109 on Sunday night.

From the outside looking in, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel for a Houston Rockets team that finished with the NBA’s worst record for the past two seasons.

Harrison Barnes scored 25 points, and the Sacramento Kings beat the Houston Rockets 122-117.

Davion Mitchell, Damian Jones and Trey Lyles scored 24 points each, and the Sacramento Kings outlasted the Houston Rockets for a 121-118 win.

Keldon Johnson had 28 points and the San Antonio Spurs punctuated Zach Collins’ return from a nearly two-year absence with a 131-106 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday night.

Dejounte Murray and Jakob Poeltl combined for 37 points in three quarters to help the San Antonio Spurs coast to a 134-104 victory over the Houston Rockets Tuesday night.

Karl-Anthony Towns scored a season-high 40 points, D’Angelo Russell added 22 points and 10 assists and the Minnesota Timberwolves won their fourth straight, beating the Houston Rockets 141-123.

Tim Hardaway Jr. had 19 points and seven assists to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 130-106 win over the Houston Rockets on Friday night despite missing two stars and their head coach.

Christian Wood had 31 points and 14 rebounds and Houston beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 124-91 on Friday night in the Rockets’ home opener.

The Houston Rockets were a franchise-worst 17-55 last season in the wake of the James Harden trade.

Usman Garuba, one of the freed boys, described the horror of their six days walking through the forest and being beaten. Boko Haram, Nigeria's jihadist rebels, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but the government later said the abduction was carried out by bandit groups rampant in the northwest. Nigeria’s military and police forces, with the backing of local self-defense groups, are outgunned, outnumbered, underfunded and underpaid, he said. More than 800 security forces were killed in 2019, one of the deadliest years since Boko Haram’s establishment more than 10 years ago. It is really disturbing.”___AP journalists Lekan Oyekanmi in Katsina, Nigeria, and Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed.