NEW YORK -- Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard said he expects to play in Monday’s game against the Detroit Pistons, which would be the first time he participates in back-to-back games.

Howard hadn’t played in consecutive games because the team wanted to get him in game shape after he missed significant time in training camp recovering from a stiff back.

On Sunday, Howard played 30 minutes in a 116-111 overtime victory over the New York Knicks. The Rockets are limiting Howard to nearly 25 minutes per game, but because it went into overtime, the Rockets pushed the minutes on Howard.

“[Trainers] wanted to limit my minutes, and it went into overtime but it will be probably be the same way [Monday],” Howard said after scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds, which included a two-handed dunk over Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis in overtime. “Once I get in better shape, then I’ll continue to play more minutes and play more back to backs. But I felt good tonight, and we’ll see how I feel [Monday] morning.”

With Howard in the starting lineup, the Rockets (7-10) are 6-5.

The Rockets are using backup center Clint Capela in the starting lineup regardless of what the opponent has personnel wise.

Interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff said using a bigger lineup in the frontcourt is necessary to up the defensive effort.

Against the Knicks, Capela and Howard combined for 17 rebounds and took 25 of the Rockets 95 total shot attempts.

“We’re going to go with it,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re confident in what those guys can do and what they can do together and obviously you put Patrick Beverley at the head of the ball, now he’s into guys, he’s dogging the ball, putting more pressure on people. If guys go to the paint, now they got two guys in there they have to deal with. One of them can challenge the shot, the other can come up with the rebound. When we’ve been small, Dwight would go challenge the shot or Clint would go challenge the shot, and we were left with wings going in there trying to rebound against other team’s bigs. We wanted to get bigger, we wanted to get longer and see if we can do a better job defensively and on the defensively glass.”

The Rockets are 2-0 with Capela and Howard in the starting lineup.