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The Houston Rockets come into today's game having won six straight games, which is the longest current streak in the NBA. This streak includes wins over the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns. The Rockets have also beaten the Cavaliers, Bucks and Timberwolves during the streak.
Tonight's game is the second meeting between them and the Wizards. Last time, the Wizards lost, 114-107 at Verizon Center on January 11. They were down by as many as 25 points, and then Kevin Seraphin led a furious comeback in the fourth quarter to help get the Wizards up to a five point lead at one point. I wouldn't be surprised to see Seraphin play some good minutes once again tonight given his play against Dwight Howard. On top of all that, that game also experienced two rain delays for 57 minutes due to a roof leak. It's still just as bizarre to me today as it was last month.
So without further or do, here are the notes for tonight's game.
Where and when? Tip off is at 8 p.m. at the Toyota Center. You can watch the game on Comcast SportsNet while a big snowstorm is about to dump significant accumulations in the D.C. area and ultimately up through the Northeast.
Are they good? Yes. They are 35-17, just two games behind the Spurs in a deep Southwest Division.
Who's out? For the Wizards, Al Harrington. The Rockets are missing Greg Smith, who is questionable for tonight.
What are they good at? The Rockets are the third highest scoring team in the NBA at 105.3 points per game. They are also fifth in the NBA in field goal percentage defense.
In terms of personnel, they have Dwight Howard and James Harden, who will be in the All-Star game with John Wall. They also have additional young perimeter scorers like Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons. Last, but not least, power forward Terrence Jones is also having a breakout year, averaging 11.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game this season after playing sparingly and spending time in the D-League last year.
What are they bad at? The Rockets are third in the league in turnovers, giving it up 16.1 times per game. The Wizards also force 16.3 turnovers a game, which is fifth in the NBA, and that's something they will need to exploit in order to win this game.
Who's going to win? I'm going with my gut, which says Houston will win this game, unfortunately. But at the same time, if the Wizards can stop Oklahoma City from getting to an 11 game winning streak, maybe they'll pull it off. This team does have a habit of doing things like that this season.
