The Rockets stay in LA to take on another desperate Western Conference foe
My guess is that Ime Udoka will play his starters tonight. I just don’t think they’ll play for very long.
After resting six regulars in Los Angeles on Wednesday, I doubt the Houston Rockets will rest all of those players again. Instead, I think tonight will look more like a preseason game where the starters and rotation players handle the first half and maybe part of the third quarter before handing the keys over to the players we saw getting tons of minutes on Wednesday night.
Obviously, that will be just fine with the Los Angeles Lakers, who need a win to clinch the third spot in the Western Conference. Houston is prepared to hand them that win, and all should go smoothly as long as no one gets hurt.
Houston has been enjoying life the past few days, while the Lakers had the emotional return of Luka Doncic to Dallas on Wednesday. He went off, as expected.
Anyway, much like Wednesday night, one of these teams needs to win and the other doesn’t. That will almost certainly be reflected in the final score. In fact, it would probably do Houston well to lose this game thanks to referee incompetence so they can use that when they (hopefully) face off against the Lakers in the second round.
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
9:30pm CT
How To Watch
NBA TV, Space City Home Network, and Playback
Injury Report
Rockets
Who knows?
Lakers
None
The Line (as of this post)
N/A
Check here for updates
Looking ahead because we can
Sunday afternoon in Houston against the Denver Nuggets
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