The Rockets look to bounce back against a team that’s had their number
February 20, 2020.
It’s been 1,750 days since the Houston Rockets last defeated the Golden State Warriors. It’s a losing streak of 14 games, with most coinciding with Houston’s tank. That game happened before most people had even heard of coronavirus. So yes, the Rockets haven’t beaten the Warriors since before the pandemic.
Oh, and that game on 2/20/2020? Yeah, Stephen Curry didn’t play in that one. To find a game that Houston won against a Warriors squad with Curry, you have to go another year back, all the way to February 23, 2019. That’s 2,112 days ago. I’ll stop now.
The point is that Houston is hoping to slay two dragons tonight: the cursed three-game California road trip and the Warriors. A win tonight in San Francisco would go a long way to some catharsis for long-suffering Rockets fans.
It bears mentioning that both teams lost tough games on Tuesday night. The Rockets got blitzed by a Kings team that wouldn’t miss and an officiating crew trying to atone for screwing over Sacramento in the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The Warriors held an 11-point lead with six minutes left against the Denver Nuggets. It was their fifth consecutive loss and cost them a homecourt game in the quarterfinal round of the NBA Cup.
Which reminds me: these teams will meet again on Wednesday in NBA Cup action, with the winner advancing to Las Vegas to face the winner of Dallas and Oklahoma City. Thanks to quirks of the NBA Cup, this means that Houston and Golden State will play each other five times this season (three in Houston, two in San Francisco). That also means that whomever Houston plays after Golden State in the Cup window (OKC or Dallas either on the road or in Vegas) will also constitute a fifth meeting. With Houston’s poor West Coast luck and inability to beat the Warriors, the disaster scenario of five straight losses looms large.
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
9pm CT
How To Watch
Space City Home Network, NBA TV, and Playback TV
Injury Report
Rockets
Jalen Green: GTD (because Jae Crowder raked his eyes in a clean, common foul)
Fred VanVleet: GTD
Tari Eason: OUT
Warriors
Draymond Green: OUT
Steph Curry: OUT
Andrew Wiggins: GTD
The Line (as of this post)
Hou -3
Check here for updates
Looking ahead because we can
Sunday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers
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