Houston Rockets vs. Dallas Mavericks game preview

The Rockets face the “new look” Mavs for the second time this season

On paper, this is a game that the Houston Rockets should absolutely win. Houston is playing at home and with a little pep in their step thanks to the schedule finally clearing up and the team being mostly healthy. The Dallas Mavericks are as injured and understandably dejected as a team could possibly be right now and are barely able to field a squad.

They don’t play the games on paper, though.

Houston has already lost a game this season to a severely undermanned team (the Golden State Warriors) and have lost several games to bad teams missing key pieces (the Nets games spring to mind). So while Houston has all of the relevant advantages (talent, venue, etc.), the Mavs still employ NBA talent. Really, it’s like Kyle Kuzma said, “At this point it’s like, ‘Don’t be that team.’” The undermanned Dallas squad does have one win (over the Spurs in San Antonio).

Klay Thompson is the X-factor tonight for Dallas. I’m convinced that if Thompson played every game against Houston, he’d be a better shooter than Steph Curry. As it stands, he has to play 78 games against other teams and that’s usually where that argument falls apart.

Tonight is the first night of a back-to-back for Houston, their penultimate of the season. Tomorrow’s game against Chicago promises to be a bit tougher, so getting a handle on tonight’s contest early could play big dividends moving forward.

Finally, there is a bit of bittersweet thing going tonight. A win for Houston is obviously crucial in their hunt for a playoff spot in general and homecourt advantage in the first round specifically, but a Mavericks win would also help Houston in the long term since the Mavs are currently the team keeping Phoenix out of the play-in spots. The Rockets own Phoenix’s pick (through a swap), so increasing Phoenix’s lottery odds is always a good thing.

We’ll be in the Playback room tonight, so you should come join to watch the Rockets and talk about the game. Remember, we get a handful of VIP passes that we give out to anyone who wants to watch the game. No League Pass necessary!

Tip-off

7pm CT

How To Watch

Space City Home Network and Playback

Injury Report

Rockets

Reed Sheppard: OUT

Amen Thompson: OUT

Mavericks

Anthony Davis: OUT

Kyrie Irving: OUT

Dereck Lively II: OUT

Daniel Gafford: OUT

Olivier-Maxence Prosper: OUT

P.J. Washington: GTD

Kai Jones: GTD

Jaden Hardy: GTD

The Line (as of this post)

N/A

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

Saturday night in Houston against the Chicago Bulls