On Feb. 7, the Chicago Bulls (33-21) lost to the NBA's best team, the Phoenix Suns (43-10), 127-124 at the United Center.
The loss marked Chicago's second straight after the team came up short against Philadelphia on Feb. 6. According to NBC Sports, the Bulls dropped to 1-11 against teams with the top seven records besides theirs.
A day after scoring 45 against the 76ers, DeMar DeRozan scored 38 points against Phoenix; Zach LaVine added 32 points after missing the previous two games because of back spasms.. Devin Booker led Phoenix with 38 as well while Chris Paul added 19 points and 11 assists.
Next, the Bulls will play the Charlotte Hornets in North Carolina on Wed., Feb. 9.
Former Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith is now leading the Houston Texans.
Smith was the Texans' associate head coach and defensive coordinator this past season. Before that, he led the University of Illinois football team.
According to ESPN.com, Smith replaces David Culley, who was fired by the Texans in mid-January, less than one year after he was hired. Under Smith, Houston's defense ranked 23rd in Football Outsiders' defense-adjusted value over average but had 25 takeaways in 2021.
Smith was previously an NFL head coach with the Chicago Bears (2004-12) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2014-15); he then led the Fighting Illini for five seasons.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen scored a world-record 113.97 in the short program Feb. 8.
His performance included a quad flip, a triple axel and a quad lutz/triple toe-loop combo, NBC Sports noted.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama was in second place behind Chen, and fellow Japanese skater Shoma Uno came in third. A strong free skate on Feb. 10 could make Chen an Olympic champion.
Unfortunately for the U.S. squad, Vincent Zhou had to withdraw from the men's singles competition on Monday after testing positive for COVID-19, per ESPN.com . In an emotional Instagram video, Zhou said, in part, "It seems pretty unreal that of all the people it would happen to myself, and that's not just because I'm still processing this turn of events but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of COVID since the start of the pandemic."
Queer skater Jason Brown, the third member of the men's team, skated a personal best short program, landing in sixth place with 97.24 points, according to NBC Sports. His skate can be seen at www.nbcolympics.com/videos/team-usas-jason-brown-has-personal-best-short-lands-sixth .