Wizards at Rockets preview: Washington begins preseason on Tuesday night

The Washington Wizards will play the Houston Rockets tomorrow night their first game of the preseason. Here’s a preview.

Game Info

When: Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 8 p.m. ET

Where: Toyota Center, Houston, TX

How to Watch/Listen: AT&T SportsNet Southwest in Houston, No D.C. TV feed, The Team 980 will have it on the radio.

Injuries: For the Wizards, Thomas Bryant (Knee, out), Deni Avdija (Ankle, out) and Rui Hachimura (Personal, out). For the Rockets, John Wall (personal, out).

Notes

The Wizards will begin the preseason fresh off a week of training camp, some media day shenanigans and a very early players’ only meeting to get everyone on the same page, not because of a losing stretch. I’m looking forward to seeing how the backcourt of Bradley Beal and Spencer Dinwiddie works out. And I’m also interested in seeing the growth Daniel Gafford shows now that the starting center position is all but his for the weeks to come.

Also, I’m looking forward to seeing how Kyle Kuzma fits in given that he’s been a consistent scorer, whether as a starter of bench player throughout his career. A strong preseason run by the starting unit will certainly give us more optimism heading into the regular season.

As for the Rockets, they are clearly in rebuild mode. While he is still on the roster, John Wall will not play for them this year as his camp and Houston try to facilitate a trade or buyout of the $91.7 million remaining on his contract. The former Wizards franchise star still participated in training camp, though he won’t play in any games.

Houston’s projected starting backcourt of Jalen Green and Kevin Porter, Jr. will be a contrast vs. Washington’s. And given that they are in a long term rebuild, they will still have to figure out how their lineups look from starters to the bench and end of game situations.