Dwight Howard brushes off rumors of malcontent

Try as he might to clear the air, Dwight Howard knows as long as the Houston Rockets continue to underachieve, postulations about what ails them will continue to swirl. So too, most likely, will trade rumors involving Howard, who's expected to opt out of his contract at season's end.

For now, as the Rockets try to climb out of the hole they dug themselves in the season's first month (and they're doing an able job of it, with 10 wins in their last 14 games), Howard's just looking to control what he can control.

"It's like they always say, if you ain't hear it from the horse's mouth, then it ain't true," he told ESPN's Calvin Watkins. "Here's the horse's mouth."

From the horse's mouth came an admission that yes, he and the Rockets are unhappy with how they've been playing, but no, that does not mean he's looking to pull up stakes and move on to the next NBA town, as has been suggested in recent weeks.

"Of course as a team we've been unhappy in the past with how we played and as individuals and our record and stuff like that and that's rightfully so," he said. "Why wouldn't we want that? We expect better from ourselves, the city expects the best from us. We raised the bar and we've set the bar so high, so of course we are going to be unhappy with the way we've performed. But that's why we're out here working, trying to get better every day and that's what our focus is. So if anybody tells you different about anything else, they're just lying. It's just noise."

Even with Howard missing half the regular season last year, the Rockets won 56 games and came within spitting distance of the NBA Finals, falling just three wins short. For an encore, they staggered to a 5-10 start, and got their head coach fired less than a month into a three-year extension.

Since then, the Rockets have shown some signs of life - friskiness, even - and they're coming off consecutive quality wins over the Los Angeles Clippers and Charlotte Hornets that took them over .500 for the first time in six weeks. For all their struggles, they sit seventh in a weakened Western Conference at 15-14, with a three-game cushion separating them from the lottery flock.

"I think our defense has been the key to what we've been doing these last three games," said J.B. Bickerstaff, who took over as interim head coach when Kevin McHale was handed his walking papers. "We've been tremendous on the defensive end of the floor and it's everybody."

It's arguably been Howard more than anyone else. The 30-year-old center may be a shell of the do-everything athletic force he was at his peak, but he's still an incredibly disruptive presence near the rim, averaging 1.1 steals and two blocks per 36 minutes.

The Rockets will look to keep their winning streak rolling against Howard's former team, the Orlando Magic, on Wednesday night.