Game Preview: Houston Rockets vs Minnesota Timberwolves

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Following a blowout win over the Pelicans, the Rockets head home to face the young Timberwolves. Holding firm at 3rd in the West, the Rockets have tied their win total from last season, at 41-18. The Rockets are led in scoring, assists and rebounds by MVP candidate James Harden, at 28.9 points, 11.3 assists, and  8.2 rebounds a game. The Rockets are ranked 2nd in offensive rating, 13th in defensive rating, and 3rd in net rating.

The Timberwolves are on the outside looking in, sitting at 22-35, after a win over the Mavericks, three games out of the playoffs in the West. The Wolves are led in scoring and rebounding by Karl Anthony-Towns, at 23.7 points and 11.8 rebounds, while Ricky Rubio leads them in assists at 8.4 per game. The Timberwolves rank 11th in offensive rating, 23rd in defensive rating, and 16th in net rating.

Starting Lineups

We should expect more of the same from the Rockets, with James Harden at point guard, Patrick Beverley at shooting guard, Trevor Ariza at small forward, Ryan Anderson at power forward, and Clint Capela at center to start the game, with Eric Gordon and possibly Lou Williams, getting starter’s minutes.

The Timberwolves will be without explosive swingman Zach LaVine on Saturday, as he will be out for the season with a torn ACL. The Wolves will likely start the game with Ricky Rubio at point guard, Brandon Rush at shooting guard, Andrew Wiggins at small forward, Gorgui Dieng at power forward, and Karl Anthony-Towns at center.

Three Things to Watch

• Sweet Lou – The day before the deadline the Rockets traded for bench scorer Lou Williams, who made his debut Thursday with no practice or even a shoot around, and didn't disappoint. In his first game as a Rocket, Lou made a career high seven threes on his way to 27 points in only 26 minutes. Watch to see how Lou Will follows that debut performance on Saturday.
  


• Pace and Space vs Slow and Steady – Though both teams are top 11 offensively, they do their damage in very different ways. The Rockets are one of the faster and three-point-happy teams in the league, sitting at 4th in pace and 1st in three point attempt rate, while the Timberwolves rank just 24th in pace and 28th in three point attempt rate. Watch to see how these two styles clash and which team is able to set the tempo early.


• Third Time Around – These two teams have split the season series 1-1 so far this season. Something very interesting about the first two meetings is that both games were in Minnesota and the second half of a back-to-back for the Rockets, but now the tables have turned, as the Wolves head into Houston after just playing the night before. Watch to see if the loss and unnecessarily close victory were attributable to fatigue over anything else.

Prediction and Tip-Off

The Rockets have struggled to put away the Timberwolves like they should, but I expect that to change in a Rockets win, with the Rockets' added firepower and the Wolves coming off the first game of a back-to-back.

Tip-off will be at 8:00 P.M. Central Time in Houston on Saturday, February 25th. The game will be televised on ROOTSPORTS with the radio broadcast on Sports Talk 790-AM.

Rockets 105, Wolves 119 - Houston's Winning Streak Runs Out of Gas

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For the second time this season, the Houston Rockets are looking to extend their winning streak to ten on the second night of a back-to-back in Minnesota against the Timberwolves. Unfortunately, the Rockets could not repeat the near-miraculous comeback of the first meeting and the winning streak was put to an end.

There was absolutely no energy in the building to start this game, probably because it was six degrees in Minneapolis (who wants to travel in that?), but it could also have to do with the fact that Houston had to fight off a furious comeback from the Charlotte Hornets just last night. Nonetheless, the Rockets came out flat and allow the Wolves to walk all over them. Andrew Wiggins was especially on fire, hitting six of his first seven shot attempts and scoring 15 points in the opening period.

The Rockets struggled mightily to shoot the ball early, missing all seven of their three-point attempts (six of them from Ryan Anderson). Montrezl Harrell, on the other hand, was the only starter that brought any energy to Houston – and he scored nine points in the first to minimize the damage done. The Rockets were down at the end of the opening period 30-23.

The missed three-point attempts in the first quarter weren’t necessarily about bad offense (every shot Anderson took was open), but the first half of the second quarter was. With James Harden getting his usual rest to start the second, Houston’s offense stagnated and the Wolves built their lead up to 11 points. Thankfully, the Rockets held their own defensively and forced turnovers before Minnesota could capitalize on Houston’s lack of scoring. The Wolves turned the ball over back to the Rockets seven times in the second period (12 in the half), and the combination of Harden scoring eight and the Rockets nailing six straight threes helped the Rockets cut into the deficit.

In the last moments of the first half, Patrick Beverley took a tough charge in the paint, which gave the Rockets the ball out of bounds with just 1.3 seconds left on the game clock. Naturally, the Rockets looked for Nene to hit a buzzer beater and the Rockets went into halftime down 55-54.

NENÊ at the buzzer! 🇧🇷 https://t.co/tFsODKhBZm

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) January 12, 2017

James Harden opened the third quarter with a three that gave the Rockets their first lead of the game (57-55). Both team traded the lead a few times for the majority of the period, but Houston’s inability to execute offensively allowed the Wolves to regain the lead and build it to eight points following a 9-0 run. The third quarter really grinded to a halt with the refs calling a foul or a turnover seemingly every time down the court. Despite Harden looking to score a little more aggressively (he had 26 by the end of the third), the Rockets looked totally gassed defensively and found themselves down by double-digits going into the fourth (89-77).

The Wolves started the fourth quarter with far more energy and a 10-0 run, ballooning their lead up to 20 points. Ryan Anderson threatened to lead the Rockets to a huge comeback (like in the previous meeting between these two teams) by draining three in a row from deep, but it was all for naught as the Rockets could not get a stop on the other end of the floor.

Houston’s primary problem in this game was dead legs. That tends to happen on the second half of a back-to-back, but it’s especially the case when the Rockets are down two starters (Clint Capela and Eric Gordon) and had to expend a ton of energy just to win the previous night. Montrezl Harrell and Nene getting into foul trouble certainly didn’t help, but poor shooting and even worse defense was the death knell for the nine-game winning streak.

For Minnesota, Andrew Wiggins scored 28 points, Karl Anthony Towns posted 23 points and 18 rebounds, and Shabazz Muhammed contributed 20 points and seven rebounds. Aside from Harden, the Rockets only had two other players - Ryan Anderson and Trevor Ariza - with double-digit scoring.

The Rockets look to start another winning streak on Friday when the Memphis Grizzlies visit Toyota Center.

Game Ball

This is a segment of the game recaps that will give the proverbial game ball to a player that proved to be most valuable to the Rockets on a given night. This award won’t necessarily go to the player that puts up the best numbers, but to the player that made the greatest impact on the team – tangible or intangible.

Wednesday’s game ball goes to James Harden.

This one goes to James Harden by default, as he was the only player that could actually facilitate the offense in any way. Games like this are where the Rockets really miss Eric Gordon’s scoring and secondary playmaking (which would relieve Harden from shouldering the burden). Harden only made two of his eleven shot attempts from beyond the arc, but he still managed to score 33 points and dish out 12 assists.

Ryan Anderson’s late flurry threatened to take this game ball, but he finally caught his rhythm way too late in this game. Houston’s going to need him to find a rhythm much earlier in games, and they’ll need James Harden to continue to take on the scoring load.

Game Preview: Houston Rockets vs Minnesota Timberwolves

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A night after setting the regular season record for three point makes on Friday, in route to their 20th win of the season, the Rockets head to Minnesota, looking for their 10th straight win. The Rockets are led in both scoring and assists by James Harden, at 27.7 points and 11.8 assists, and in rebounding by Clint Capela, who pulls in 8.1 rebounds a game. The Rockets now rank 3rd in offensive rating, 16th in defensive rating, and 4th, yes, 4th, in net rating.

The young Timberwolves come into Saturday's game 7-18, having dropped 4 of their last 5 games. The Timberwolves had high expectations going into this season with the hire of coach Tom Thibodeau, but have fallen well short of those expectations to start. The Timberwolves are led in scoring by Andrew Wiggins, at 22.2 points, in assists by Ricky Rubio, at 6.6 assists, and in rebounds by Karl-Anthony Towns, at 10.8 rebounds per game. So far this season the Timberwolves rank 10th in offensive rating, 27th in defensive rating, and 19th in net rating.

Starting Lineups

The Rockets are likely to continue to start with James Harden at point guard, Patrick Beverley at shooting guard, Trevor Ariza at small forward, Ryan Anderson at power forward, and Clint Capela at center, with Eric Gordon getting starter’s minutes.

The Timberwolves are likely to open the game with Ricky Rubio at point guard, Zach LaVine at shooting guard, Andrew Wiggins at small forward, Gorgui Dieng at power forward, and Karl-Anthony Towns at center.

Three Things to Watch

• Timber-pups – The Timberwolves have, arguably, the best collection of young talent in the NBA, despite their poor record. The reason they haven't been able to play up to the level that many thought they would is because, as young players are, they are inconsistent. Many times throughout the season, and even throughout individual games, the Timberwolves look like a legit playoff team, but other times they look like a bottom dweller. Watch to see which version of the Wolves comes to play on Saturday.
  


• Splash Gordon– Eric Gordon has been absolutely on fire in December. Through the nine games played this month, Gordon is shooting nearly 54% from three, on an insane rate of over 9 attempts a game, and is now only one three behind Steph Curry for most makes this season, despite playing 76 fewer minutes so far. Watch to see how long Gordon can continue his prolific shooting.


• Getting to the line  – the Timberwolves are the fourth worst team in opponent free throw rate, having trouble keeping teams off of the line. Watch to see if Harden and the Rockets can take advantage of the Wolves foul happy play.

Prediction and Tip-Off

The Rockets continue play some of the best basketball in the NBA right now, but coming off of a back to back against a young, rested, Timberwolves team will not be a walk in the park. I think the Rockets will be able to keep their streak alive in a close one, moving to 21-7.

Tip-off will be at 7:00 P.M. Central Time in Houston on Saturday, December 17th. The game will be televised on ROOT sports, with the radio broadcast on Sports Talk 790-AM.