Houston Rockets vs. Golden State Warriors Game 5 preview

The Rockets try to avoid elimination

We’ve seen this story before.

The Houston Rockets need a victory over the Golden State Warriors to keep their first round series going. A win tonight for the Warriors gives them the gentleman’s sweep. And while the three games that Golden State have been close, it’s pretty clear that they’ve been the better team in those contests.

Do the Rockets have any hope left? We saw in the James Harden Era that those teams (led by Harden) were prone to give up when they thought the series was unwinnable. That’s not a Harden-only issue, as we saw from the Miami Heat on Monday night. However, with such a young team, it’s entirely possible that this iteration of the Rockets has no interest in flying back to San Francisco.

A win tonight would at least give Houston a little more dignity heading into an offseason that will be shorter than originally expected but longer than a 2 seed usually gets.

Since this is the potential final game of the season, I’d like to thank everyone for reading along this season. Normally I would have done this in Game 82’s preview, but the Rockets went and made the playoffs, which is pretty cool. Writing 82 game previews (not counting Summer League, preseason, and postseason) can get monotonous at times, but the support and replies from all of you go a long way. We don’t always have to agree, but we can always be civil. Thank you.

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

6:30pm CT

How To Watch

TNT, Space City Home Network, and Playback

Injury Report

Rockets

Jae’Sean Tate: OUT

Warriors

None

The Line (as of this post)

HOU -4

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

Game 6 in San Francisco on Friday if necessary