Houston plays the Wemby-less Spurs on national television
We’ve been here before. Four days ago, in fact.
On Friday, the Houston Rockets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in a close contest. The Rockets pulled away in the final minutes thanks to clutch buckets from Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green. The next night, Houston went into Utah and laid an absolute egg against a team that was inferior in quality that was also on the second night of a back-to-back. The Rockets played zero defense and the Jazz got every shot they wanted. It was a deserved loss for the good guys.
Tonight, the Rockets welcome the San Antonio Spurs to Toyota Center. Houston is coming off a close win against the Milwaukee Bucks that was won with clutch buckets and free throws from Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun. The Spurs are also on the second night of a back-to-back and are inferior in quality with Victor Wembanyama out for the season with deep vein thrombosis. It’s a bit fishy that they waited until after the All-Star Game to have Wemby sit, but we’ve seen this playbook before from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Elite tankers don’t start until after the break, and San Antonio is elite at everything in their franchise’s history. Expect De’Aaron Fox to get surgery on his hand in the coming weeks.
So, can the Rockets correct their mistake from a few nights ago? Utah’s one advantage was that the game was in Salt Lake City. The fans were desperate for a win and the Jazz and Rockets obliged. Tonight, the Spurs might get a bit of a push because the game is on ESPN. Star players like Fox always seem to have a little extra juice when they know the country is watching.
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
8:30pm CT
How To Watch
ESPN, Space City Home Network, and Playback
Injury Report
Rockets
Fred VanVleet: GTD
Tari Eason: OUT
Spurs
Victor Wembanyama: OUT
Charles Bassey: OUT
The Line (as of this post)
HOU -9
Check here for updates
Looking ahead because we can
Saturday night in Houston against the Sacramento Kings
new Playback.Embed(“playback-embed”, {
room: “thedreamshake”,
style: { height: “100%”, width: “100%” },
});